Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to speculate as to what aspects of the individual-specific and shared environments might be targeted for further study. Resilient children are autonomous, have high self-esteem, and get along well with others. Their families are cohesive and free from frequent conflicts among family members. Resilient children also have access to social support both within and outside the family that helps them cope with stress. Although the constructs of resilience and wellness both apply to mentally healthy people, they differ in one important respect.
Wellness is purely descriptive.
It assesses a person s absolute level of healthy functioning without regard to either the person s constitutional vulnerability to mental illness or his or her exposure to environmental risk factors. For example, a well-adjusted person who has mentally ill parents or has been exposed to poverty and family conflict can be described as resilient. In the latter case, the resilience of the person is unknown. Thus, Kendler et al. did not study resilience, because they did not assess wellness in the context of exposure to risk factors. Nevertheless, by definition, all resilient people are mentally healthy, so we can infer that some of the mentally healthy subjects of Kendler et al. must also be resilient.