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This article describes the Rochester Child Resilience Project (RCRP) and summarizes findings based on its initial year of operation. Among 4th-6th-grade urban children who had experienced significant life stress, convergent sources of evidence about current adjustment identified demographically matched samples of 37 stress-affected (SA) and 40 stress-resilient (SR) children. These two groups were compared on 11 test measures designed to expand the nomological definitional net for the concept of childhood resilience. Additionally, separate in-depth individual interviews were conducted with children and primary caregivers. Both test and interview responses significantly differentiated the groups in the predicted directions. Children's group status (SR vs. SA) was predictable on the basis of discriminant function analysis involving five test measures, blind ratings done both for the parent and child interviews, and hierarchical regression analyses reflecting major domains of the parent interview.

Compares subsamples of 37 highly stressed children with stress affected (SA) outcomes and 40 demographically similar children with stress resilient (SR) outcomes, identified within a larger sample of 4th-6th grade urban youngsters. Comparisons were made on a battery of 11 measures believed on conceptual and empirical grounds to have potential for differentiating the groups, in an effort to expand the nomological definitional net for childhood resilience. SR children judged themselves as significantly better adjusted and more competent than SAs. They had higher self esteem, more empathy, and both a more internal and more realistic sense of control. They reported more effective problem solving skills and more positive coping strategies. A combination of five predictor variables used in a discriminant function analysis correctly classified 84.1% of the sample as SRs or SAs.

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