"Michael Ungar's Nurturing Hidden Resilience in Troubled Youth is the first text in its field to examine resilience as a social construct. It offers a comprehensive theory of resilience and a model for the application of this theory to direct practice with high-risk youth in clinical, residential, and community settings." "Ungar's analysis of resilience and his approach to intervention focus on youth who are labelled dangerous, deviant, delinquent, and disordered. He explores how these youth discover and maintain well-being through discursive empowerment. Using detailed case studies, Ungar shows how high-risk youth explain their problematic behaviours, such as gang affiliations and drug and alcohol use, as strategic ways to compose stories about themselves that bring them experiences of control, strength, and acceptance." "Nurturing Hidden Resilience in Troubled Youth challenges media stereotypes and offers an alternative approach to social work practice. Timely and original, the work gives voice to troubled youth themselves, and suggests that we build upon, rather than resist, their constructions of resilience as a method of effective intervention."--BOOK JACKET.