Werner and Smith (1982) conducted a landmark longitudinal study that followed the lives of 505 individuals born in 1955 on the Island of Kauai. The researchers used a natural history method to docu- ment the lives of these individuals from birth until they approached their 40s. The findings from their study revealed provocative insights into the drasti- cally different outcomes among individuals raised in similar environments. Of the children in the study that grew up in poverty or other adverse conditions (parental divorce, alcoholism, or mental illness), approximately two thirds eventually developed seri- ous problems as adults. The other one third developed into competent, caring adults. The obvious question was why? The dissemination of these findings marks
the beginning of resilience research. The characteristics that all of the “resilient” individuals had in common as children and over the years came to be distin- guished as protective factors (Johnson & Wiechelt,
2004).