Quantitative findings showed both stability and change on an index of resilient functioning across multiple domains in the 7 years between interviews. Seventy-six percent of the women showed less than a one standard deviation change in scores. Lower resilience between the time periods was associated with exposure to additional trauma between the two interviews. Positive functioning that persisted or increased over the time period was related to satisfaction with a woman's social role and a positive reaction to participation in communal life. The achievement of resilience earlier in life was associated with more active, positive coping later in life and with greater life and role satisfaction. A sense of competence and satisfaction in interacting with others in family, work, and community environments apparently prevented and mitigated the potential harmful consequences of childhood sexual abuse. The study was longitudinal and used both structured and open-ended interviews. The structured interviews included investigators' questions and standardized measures of exposure to trauma and quality of functioning. A subset of 21 survivors participated in in-depth, open-ended interviews about how they had coped with their childhood sexual abuse. 3 tables and 43 references