Second-Generation Research on Resilience

Social-Emotional Aspects of Children with Learning Disabilities

Margalit, Malka

Tel-Aviv University

Requests for reprints should be sent to Malka Margalit, Constantiner School of Education, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Electronic inquiries may be sent to [email protected].

Malka Margalit, Ph.D., is Professor of Education and Head of the Constantiner School of Education, Tel-Aviv University. Her current research interests include identifying factors that predict the resilience of children with learning disabilities and developmental disabilities and those of their families. In her studies she examines social and emotional development and the experience of loneliness and developing friendship (including virtual friendship—using the Internet).

Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 19(1):p 45-48, February 2004.

The goal of this commentary is to focus attention on the various protective factors examined by the four studies of this special issue, in order to predict resilient functioning. These factors include internal factors (cognitive information processing, affective information processing—the attachment/proximity conceptualization) as well as external factors such as teacher perceptions and classroom ecology. By bringing together major themes from these studies, this commentary aims to explicate core elements of resilience in order to enhance the conceptual clarity of the construct within empowerment models, and to point out major directions for future research. Questions emerging from the results yielded by these studies will also be presented.