Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Child and Adolescent Resilience and Chronic Stress

Dear Colleagues,

Resilience to chronic stress in children and adolescents is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that requires a multidisciplinary research approach. To understand how young people adapt to prolonged stress and their environment, the interrelated biological, psychological, and social processes need to be analyzed. Chronic stress—especially during sensitive developmental periods—can have lasting effects on physiological regulation, psychological functioning, academic achievement, and behavior. From a healthcare perspective, the cumulative burden of chronic stress underscores the imperative need to better understand and support the mental and physical health of children and adolescents. Effective stress management, early care, and contextualized interventions play a key role in mitigating long-term risks and promoting adaptive developmental pathways.

At the same time, a systemic perspective of resilience emphasizes the dynamic interplay of protective and risk factors at the individual, relational and contextual levels that enable positive adaptation even under adverse conditions, rather than merely as an individual responsibility.

We are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue that addresses the biological, psychological and social dimensions of resilience to chronic stress in children and adolescents. Our aim is to broaden the conceptual and empirical understanding of resilience by integrating different disciplinary perspectives and addressing current societal and developmental challenges. Through this multidisciplinary perspective, we aim to highlight innovative mechanisms, prevention efforts and intervention strategies that both support children and young people in health, education, social work and community contexts and mitigate developmental risks. This Special Issue aims to bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice by promoting papers that enrich the theoretical framework while providing actionable insights for practitioners.

We welcome original research articles, systematic reviews and integrative conceptual papers. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Biopsychosocial mechanisms of resilience;
• The impact of chronic stress on physical and mental health;
• Stress reactivity, stress regulation, and management, and recovery trajectories;
• Family and school-related resilience processes and supportive interventions;
• Socio-ecological structural factors;
• Trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate care;
• Longitudinal pathways to resilience and socio-emotional development despite chronic stress exposure;
• Culturally grounded policy and context-sensitive approaches to resilience building in the context of chronic stress exposure.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Wassilis Kassis
Guest Editor

Dr. Dilan Aksoy
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

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• resilience
• chronic stress
• children and adolescents
• biopsychosocial adaptation
• multidisciplinary approaches
• socio-emotional development
• chronic stress in childhood