5. Promoting resilience in young people: a resource-based approach
The challenge for the field is to develop scientifically testable theories of resilience that can
ultimately inform best practice interventions promoting positive developmental outcomes in adolescence. From this review of the literature on adolescent resilience, it is apparent that most
level protective processes, the family level processes and community-level protective processes.Within each level, researchers have been able to define a range of more specific processes that
would seem to ameliorate the effects of a risk setting, given the appropriate dose and timing of the
protective process. From an intervention development reference, each protective resource at each
level provides an intervention target for promoting resilience in young people. While the nature of
intervention at each level may differ significantly, the aim of each remains the same, that of
providing young people with the resources needed to successfully adapt to an ever changing
physical, psychological and social environment. Where young people are well resourced within
themselves, within their family and social contexts, a capacity for constructive adaptation to
adversity, that is, resilience can be enhanced.