Research on adult reactions to potentially
traumatic events has focused almost exclusively on post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although there has been
relatively little research on the absence of trauma symp-
toms, the available evidence suggests that resilience fol-
lowing such events may be more prevalent than previously
believed. This study examined the prevalence of resilience,
defined as having either no PTSD symptoms or one symp-
tom, among a large (n 5 2,752) probability sample of
New York area residents during the 6 months following the
September 11th terrorist attack. Although many re-
spondents met criteria for PTSD, particularly when ex-
posure was high, resilience was observed in 65.1% of the
sample. Resilience was less prevalent among more highly
exposed individuals, but the frequency of resilience never
fell below one third even among the exposure groups with
the most dramatic elevations in PTSD.