In a companion volume to their highly acclaimed book Overcoming the Odds, Emmy E. Werner and Ruth S. Smith continue
their longitudinal study of approximately five hundred men and women who were born in 1955 on the Hawaiian island
of Kauai. A third of these individuals had been considered "at risk" because of birth complications,
parental mental illness, family dysfunction, and adverse early conditions such as poverty. Werner and Smith examine
the long-term impact of these influences on the individuals' later adaptation to life.
Drawing on data collected by a team of psychologists, pediatricians, social workers, and public health nurses across
four decades, Werner and Smith chronicle the development of these men and women from birth to midlife: infancy,
early and middle childhood, late adolescence, and early and middle adulthood. Their book focuses on protective
factors within the individual, the extended family, and the community that allowed most of the men and women to
be successful and to be satisfied with their lives by age forty. Most important, the authors document the remarkable
resilience and capacity for recovery displayed by the majority of these baby boomers, who approached middle age
as competent, confident, and caring adults.
Journeys from Childhood to Midlife highlights key turning points in the third and fourth decades of life, and shows
why more women than men succeeded in overcoming the odds. The work addresses the policy implications of the research
and the need to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of current intervention programs for children.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Context of the Study
3. Studying Lives over Time
4. Forty Something
5. Pathways of Resilience From Childhood to Midlife
6. Teenage Mothers: From High-Risk Pregnancy to Successful Midlife Adaptation
7. Troubled Teenagers: Roads to Recovery in Adulthood
8. Life Trajectories of Delinquent Youths
9. Coping with Learning Disabilities
10. Risk Factors and Protective Factors: What Matters over Time?
11. Paths to Successful Adult Adaptation
12. Lessons from the Journey to Midlife
App. I: Tables 1-29, Figures A1-A2
App. II Summary of Scoring System for Pre/Perinatal Complications
Dimensions of Psychological Well-Being
Scoring System for Ratings of Adult Adaptation
References
Index
