Stress During Childhood and Adolescence: Sources of Risk and Vulnerability

Abstract

review recent studies that have examined psychosocial stress as a source of risk for emotional/behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence / identify sources of individual differences in vulnerability to stress in children and adolescents / address the issues that arise from the use of multiple informants to define and measure emotional/behavioral problems in children and adolescents in stress research first, we define the concepts of risk and vulnerability as they relate to stress and maladjustment in childhood and adolescence / second, we review research concerning stress as a risk factor, emphasizing prospective, longitudinal studies with children and adolescents / in the third section, we discuss some of the factors that have been found to moderate the effects of stress, leading some youths to be vulnerable and others to be resistant to the effects of stress / fourth, we discuss the different findings that have been obtained when children's and adolescents' self-reports . . . have been used to assess the criterion variable of emotional/behavioral problems / finally directions for future research in this area are outlined