Resilience In Adolescence

The WHO identifies adolescence as the period in human growth and development that occurs after childhood and before adulthood, from ages 10 to19. Adolescence as a development stage is quite turbulent. Many changes occur in this developmental stage. Apart from the physical changes that are occuring in the body. Adolescence is also a time when risk taking behaviour happens. Peer relationships are more important now than ever before. There are also significant cognitive changes and the shift from concrete operations to formal operational thought.

In Erik Erikson's theory, identity versus identity confusion are noted as his fifth developmental stage, this happens in adolescence. This point of developmental stage is where the young person attempts

Resilience has been defined as "positive adaptation in the context of significant challenges, variously referring to the capacity for, process of, or outcomes of successful life-course development, during or following exposure to potentially life-altering experiences". Resilience has been gaining considerable attention over the last forty years or so, when it was observed that children and adolescents could seemingly cope in the situations of extreme adversity.

The topic of resilience has in recent times been argued vosciferously among psychologists. Firstly we need to look at the what resilience is. Is it a personality trait or quality? Is it a process? Or perhaps an outcome? Can resilience be completely attributed to an individual, dependent on their personality traits or qualities? Earlier measurements and research of resilience interpreted that it was the individual that possessed the necessary qualities in him/herself to overcome extreme

This theory is seen as a theory of positive emotions. According to Fredrickson () by increasing the levels of positive emotions, broadening the mindset and building on psychological resources, over time positive emotions should also enhance an individual's emotional and physical well-being. In a more recent study (Cohn et al, 2009), attempted to link day to day positive emotions to improvements in life outcomes via growth in resilience. The study found that positive emotions can be a huge source of personal growth and, coupled with ego resilience, both can maintain and build on one another. As such it would appear that this promotes overall well-being and happiness. According to Fredrickson, "The theory, together with the research reviewed here, suggests that positive emotions: (i) broaden people’s attention and thinking; (ii) undo lingering negative emotional arousal; (iii) fuel psychological resilience; (iv) build consequential personal resources; (v) trigger upward spirals towards greater well-being in the future; and (vi) seed human