Risk, protection and resilience are current issues in mental development researches. Risk factor concept is already well Risk, protection and resilience are current issues in mental development researches. Risk factor concept is already well delimited, but protection factors and resilience are still mixed. Risk factors are related to environmental variables that increase the probability of bad consequences in development. On the other hand, the protection factors are associated to individual resources that decrease the risk effects, while resilience is usually related to individual protection factors that predict positive consequences in individuals exposed to an environment of risk. This paper shows how some studies describe those issues (risk, protection and resilience), pointing factors that can make an individual more or less vulnerable to risk, and also, the way some can be resilient when facing the adversities. That is, how some children and adolescents can overcome all the risk factors they have been exposed to and still develop as expected.
risk factors; resiliency; development