Though not referred to as resilience at the time, this study was one of the first to address major issues associated
with the concept of resilience. Garmezy and Rodnick (1959) also
studied children in poverty and the theory of “cumulative factors”
contributing to outcomes was established. They proposed that a
personality trait of the individual is not the sole source of an outcome,
but rather it is a product of both internal and external factors. This
combination of psychosocial elements and biological predispositions
combines as risk and ‘protective factors’ that help to define what is
now known as resilience.