Child and Adolescent Development in Risky Adverse Contexts: A Latin American Perspective

This book analyzes the factors and mechanisms involved in the development and adaptation of children and adolescents to adverse and risky contexts in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The experience of growing up in contexts of poverty and social vulnerability is a risk factor for child and adolescent development which may produce a series of negative effects in their adulthood, including mental disorders. This is a global concern, but so far the majority of literature about the topic has focused on developed countries. This volume aims to enrich the international literature by presenting results of research carried out in developing countries, showing how children and adolescents deal with adverse and risky contexts and analyzing both negative outcomes and the development of resilience and coping strategies.

Blanca E. Barcelata Eguiarte is a Full-Time Professor in the Department of Psychology and in the Graduate Program in Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a master's degree in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Psychology and Health from the same institution, and is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) in Mexico. Dr. Barcelata-Eguiarte is the leader of the Adolescence, Health and Family Project in UNAM’s Faculty of Higher Studies Zaragoza, and founder of the Adolescents and Family Community Program at UNAM’s University Health Care Clinic. Her research focuses on vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience of adolescents and families to multiple adverse contexts in high-risk populations, with a special emphasis in stress, coping, social support, personality, and regulation processes. She is member of Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience, Society since 2006.

Paloma Suárez Brito holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), as well as postdoctoral studies in Educational Psychology from the same university. She currently collaborates in different research projects in Mexico and USA about infant psychology and prevention of mental disorders at the Baby Lab at the Faculty of Psychology, UNAM, the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital “Juan N. Navarro”, and the National Institute of Psychiatry “Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz” in Mexico City; and at the Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA. Her research examines child development, language acquisition and attitudes toward mental health in parents and children, with special emphasis in typical - atypical population comparisons. She is currently Full Time Professor at the Latin American University (ULA) and a member of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).