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The Rochester Child Resilience Project is a coordinated set of studies of the correlates and antecedents of outcomes relating to resilience among profoundly stressed urban children. The studies have been conducted over the course of the past decade. Based on child test data, parent, teacher, and self ratings of child adjustment, and in-depth individual interviews with parents and children, a cohesive picture has developed of child and family milieu variables that consistently differentiate children with resilient versus stress-affected outcomes within this highly stressed sample. Resilient children are characterized by an easy temperament and higher IQ; sound parent/child relationships; a parent's sense of efficacy; the parent's own wellness, especially mental health; and the child's perceived competence, realistic control, empathy, and social problem-solving.

This study was conducted with a sample of highly stressed 4th-6th grade urban children consisting of matched subsamples previously classified as stress affected (SA) or stress resilient (SR). Separate in-depth interviews with parents and children provided objective self-ratings of a number of personal characteristics and expressive motor behavioral styles. Based on subsets of identical items from the two interviews, discrepancy (D)-scores were computed between parents' and children's self-ratings of ten personal descriptors, seven expressive motor behaviors, and their sum. Significantly lower D-scores were found for SR, compared to SA, parent-child dyads on all three of these measures. For the total sample, small parent-child D-scores also related significantly to indicators of fewer child problem behaviors and more competencies, assessed across multiple rater sources (i.e., parents, former teachers, and current teachers).

The metaphor of the paper's title offers a framework for a brief summary. Effective wooing of primary prevention requires that we take seriously and adhere to, its clear, sensible defining guidelines; systematize, and further develop, its generative base; use that base to guide the formulation of new primary prevention programs; further develop frameworks to promote informed choices of program directions from among many attractive possibilities; and be more hard-nosed as program evaluators. That type of courtship should improve our love life with--and perhaps even, science of--primary prevention in mental health.

This study examined relationships between student perceptions of classroom environment and mood, achievement, popularity, and adjustment, both for students in general and for "problem" (i.e., acting-out, anxious, and unpopular) children. Subjects included 511 fifth- and sixth-grade students from 23 classes in four suburban schools. Class environment was assessed by responses to a short form of the Classroom Environment Scale (CES). Students also completed mood adjective checklists and peer sociometric ratings. Reading and arithmetic report card grades and achievement test scores were recorded for the school year, and teachers submitted adjustment ratings for all students. Classes, rather than students, were used as the main unit of analysis. For classes in general, high perceived Order and Organization and Affiliation related to greater student popularity. Relationships between perceptions of class environment and the dependent measures were stronger for problem students. For that group, high perceived Order and Organization, Affiliation, and Innovation related to positive mood, greater peer popularity, and teacher ratings indicating more positive adjustment.