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Children and adolescents worldwide experience a variety of adversities that have the potential to disrupt typical development. However, some of these individuals exhibit resilience, evidencing normal development in the face of adversity. Here we review research on these constructs of risk, adversity, and resilience; synthesize international research on factors that may serve to protect children and adolescents from the negative effects of adversity at the individual, family, school, community, and cultural levels; and provide future implications for research on this topic, highlighting the unique contributions of the subsequent articles in this special issue, each of which contributes to an understanding of resilience processes in non-Western populations. Although some general trends in resilience and protection may extend beyond national borders, resilience is also strongly influenced by culture and context; therefore, it is important to advance a research agenda that recognizes the unique protective influences within and across cultural contexts.

The disproportionate discipline of Black male students is a pervasive problem in U.S. schools. To examine the role of stereotypes in disciplinary disproportionality, pre-service teachers were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a defiant student. Those who read a vignette about a Black student believed that the student was more likely to misbehave in the future, compared with those who read a vignette about a White student. These findings suggest that some teachers attribute the misbehavior of Black male students to more stable causes, which may lead them to alter their behavior toward these students.

The number of international students attending U.S. colleges and universities has increased considerably over the past decade, and the adaptation of these students is an important concern in cross-cultural research. Using survey data collected from a sample of 169 international students attending a U.S. university, this study examines the temporal patterns of students’ psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. Theresults suggest a two-phase U-curved process of psychological adaptation, with the most obvious culture shock occurring during a student’s first nine to 24 months of residence. Socio-cultural adaptation is found to increase steadily over time, without significant retreat. Interpretations, implications, and limitations of the findings are provided.