OurcasesofTimandAshley,twoat-riskadolescents, highlight the importance of bringing rigorous qualitative data to bear on the complexities and, especially, on the contradictions inherent in studies of risk and resilience. Ashley was a bundle of contradictions. Like many at-risk youth, she associated with peers who had already left school, her boyfriend had been incarcerated, and she skipped school and her co-op placement when the going got rough. Ashley sometimes responded positively to the supportive interventions of adults. Shereturnedto schoolwith hermotherwheninvitedby the principal to re-enroll and to take co-op education to make up most of the credits she needed to graduate. She followed her co-op teacher’s advice when she wasin danger of losing her credit in math, although she did nothing when there was no adult intervention to save her credit in English. She annoyed her co-op supervisor by failing to complete her assigned tasks, while she held two part-timejobs without incident to earn the money to make her car payments