Luthar (1991) has suggested a resilient individual may not necessarily be devoid of distressing
emotion, but can show successful coping, regardless of the presence of such emotion. Likewise,
Garmezy (1991) defines resilience as ‘‘Functional adequacyy(the maintenance of competent
functioning despite interfering emotionality)yas the benchmark of resilient behaviour under
stress.’’ (p. 463). Indeed, young people capable of maintaining competence despite significant
negative affect may be demonstrating the highest form of resilience. It is, however, safe to
conclude that if a resilient outcome is defined in terms of overt competencies under stress,
measures of psychological well being alone may provide a misleading impression of a young
person’s resilience.