Multilevel perspectives on pathways to resilient functioning.

Throughout the course of the 20th century, increased attention was directed toward the importance of applying a multiple levels of analysis approach to the investigation of normal and atypical developmental processes (Cicchetti & Valentino, 2007). The movement toward a multiple levels of analysis perspective is exemplified by research conducted in the fields of contemporary neuroscience and developmental psychopathology (Cicchetti, 2002). Similar to the historical growth witnessed in neuroscience (Cowan, Harter, & Kandel, 2000), developmental psychopathology has evolved as a field that is the product of the integration of various disciplines (Cicchetti, 1990). The influence of diverse disciplines on developmental psychopathology illustrates the manner in which advances in our knowledge of the operation of developmental processes within particular scientific domains mutually inform each other. These multidisciplinary origins helped to facilitate and forge the emphasis that developmental psychopathologists have placed on the importance of investigating the processes and pathways to maladaptation, psychopathology, and resilience (Cicchetti, 1984, 1993; Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2000). Despite the fact that it has become increasingly apparent that progress toward a process-level understanding of maladaptive, psychopathological, and resilient outcomes will necessitate the implementation of research designs and strategies that call for the simultaneous assessment of multiple domains of variables both within and outside the developing person, this interdisciplinary systems-level approach has yet to be brought to bear in the scientific study of resilience (Cicchetti & Blender, 2004, 2006; Curtis & Cicchetti, 2003; Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). Empirical investigations of resilience over the past 40 years have examined a wide range of psychosocial correlates of, and contributors to, the phenomenon (Luthar, 2006; Luthar & Brown, 2007; Masten, 2007; Masten & Obradović, 2006). In recent years, a number of scientists have urged researchers studying the determinants of resilience to incorporate neurobiological and molecular genetic measures into their investigations of the developmental pathways to resilient functioning (Charney, 2004; Cicchetti & Blender, 2006; Curtis & Cicchetti, 2003). Technological advances in neuroimaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalographic recording, neuroendocrinology, and molecular genetics have made it more feasible to conduct