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The book presents 13 papers that explore the intriguing and sometimes baffling phenomenon of children's capacity to deal with adversity. It is divided into three sections. The book's opening section provides an overview of stress research and coping strategies. Section 2 focuses on the determinants of competence and investigates the complex interaction of personality and experience in early childhood. Section 3 begins with a consideration of psychosocial and maternal factors that enable children of psychotic parents to maintain resilience and develop cognitive competence. It also discusses environmental adversity, the helpfulness of early interventions, and aspects of competence during childhood that are most directly related to successful adult outcome. The final paper integrates these findings with those of previous studies and suggests that more is known about the reasons why some people succumb when faced by adversity than why others remain resilient. Papers and their authors are as follows: "Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience: An Overview" (E. James Anthony); "Multiple Determinants of Risk and Invulnerability" (Ronald Seifer and Arnold J. Sameroff); "Correlates and Predictors of Competence in Young Children" (Felton Earls, and others); "Further Reflections on Resilience" (Lois Barclay Murphy); "John, a Boy Who Acquired Resilience" (Alice E. Moriarty); "Children at High Risk for Psychosis Growing Up Successfully" (E. James Anthony); "Predicting Mental Health in Children at Risk" (Julien Worland, and others); "Competent Children at Risk: A Study of Well-Functioning Offspring of Disturbed Parents" (Lawrence Fisher, and others); "Maternal Factors Related to Vulnerability and Resiliency in Young Children at Risk" (Judith S. Musick and others); "Invulnerability Among Abused and Neglected Children" (Ellen A. Farber and Byron Egeland); "Resilient Children as Adults: A 40-Year Study" (J. Kirk Felsman and George E. Vaillant); "The Traits of True Invulnerability and Posttraumatic Stress in Psychoanalyzed Men of Action" (Edwin C. Peck, Jr.); and "Adversity, Resilience, and the Study of Lives" (Bertram J. Cohler). (Contains an index.) (GLR)