Vulnerability is variation that predisposes an individual to a particular condition, such as maladaptation (see Garmezy 1971). Vulnerability is different from risk in that risk more typically refers to the statistical probability that a factor that has been associated with a condition actually does, in fact, predispose an individual to the development of that condition. The study of vulnerability during adolescence focuses on pathology, typically vulnerability to depression (Jacobs et al. 2008) or to substance use (Ohannessian and Hesselbrock 2008). In the study of depression, for example, the leading models focus on cognitive vulnerability (see Beck 1967), which view cognitive vulnerability as the presence of maladaptive self-schema that reflect themes of helplessness as well as unlovability, self-schemas that become activated by negative life events or negative moods. Not surprisingly, these models focus on how cognitive factors interact with environmental stressors to increase risk...
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References
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Garmezy, N. (1971). Vulnerability research and the issue of primary prevention. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 41, 101–116.
Jacobs, R. H., Reinecke, M. A., Gollan, J. K., & Kane, P. (2008). Empirical evidence of cognitive vulnerability for depression among children and adolescents: A cognitive science and developmental perspective. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 759–728.
Ohannessian, C. M., & Hesselbrock, V. M. (2008). A comparison of three vulnerability models for the onset of substance use in a high-risk sample. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 69, 75–84.
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Vulnerability. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_624
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_624
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