Defining Attributes
Defining attributes are the characteristics of a concept
that appear repeatedly in the literature and are
consistently present when the concept occurs (Walker
& Avant, 2005). The defining attributes for resilience
were determined by comparing two sets of data. First,
extensive lists of protective factors developed by
prominent resilience researchers were examined and
features common among the lists were tallied. Second,
lists by resilience researchers that do not distinguish
“protective factors” per se but have formulated characteristics
consistently associated with the concept of
resilience were cross-referenced.