Bonanno (2004) defined resilience as the ability of adults in
otherwise normal circumstances, who were exposed to an isolated
and potentially highly disruptive event, to maintain relatively stable
and healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning and the
capacity for generative experiences and positive emotions. He
subsequently extended this description to children with the qualification
that resilience in children required more careful monitoring
over multiple domains. He emphasized that this definition defined a
greater difference between ‘recovery’ and ‘resilience’ with the
former traditional recovery from traumatic events generally being
associated with increased psychological problems for some period
of time. Furthermore, he agreed with Masten (2001) that resilience
was in fact quite common rather than uncommon as had been
proposed by earlier researchers, and a fundamental feature of
normal coping skills as manifested by seeking social support from
others, moving forward with life and accepting your circumstances
with hope. Bonanno aligned his research with his predecessors
with respect to it being derived from a combination of risk and
protective factors.