This study examines the factors that enable children to maintain socially competent behaviors despite stress, focusing on 144 inner-city ninth-grade students with a mean age of 15.3 years. Stress was measured using a negative life events scale, and social competence was assessed through peer and teacher ratings, as well as school grades. Moderator variables included intelligence, internal locus of control, social skills, ego development, and positive life events. The study distinguishes between compensatory factors (directly related to competence) and protective/vulnerability factors (interacting with stress to influence competence). Key findings include: 1. **Ego Development**: Found to be compensatory against stress. 2. **Internal Locus of Control**: Protective factor, reducing declines in competence with increasing stress. 3. **Social Skills**: Protective factor, particularly social expressiveness, in maintaining competence. 4. **Intelligence**: Vulnerability factor, with intelligent children showing more declines in competence with high stress. 5. **Positive Life Events**: Vulnerability factor, with positive events not buffering against stress when they occur frequently. The study also found that resilient children, defined as those with high competence despite high stress, had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to competent children from low-stress backgrounds. This suggests that even resilient children may experience psychological difficulties under severe stress. The findings highlight the importance of personality attributes in moderating the effects of stress and the need for future research to explore these factors in longitudinal studies.This study examines the factors that enable children to maintain socially competent behaviors despite stress, focusing on 144 inner-city ninth-grade students with a mean age of 15.3 years. Stress was measured using a negative life events scale, and social competence was assessed through peer and teacher ratings, as well as school grades. Moderator variables included intelligence, internal locus of control, social skills, ego development, and positive life events. The study distinguishes between compensatory factors (directly related to competence) and protective/vulnerability factors (interacting with stress to influence competence). Key findings include: 1. **Ego Development**: Found to be compensatory against stress. 2. **Internal Locus of Control**: Protective factor, reducing declines in competence with increasing stress. 3. **Social Skills**: Protective factor, particularly social expressiveness, in maintaining competence. 4. **Intelligence**: Vulnerability factor, with intelligent children showing more declines in competence with high stress. 5. **Positive Life Events**: Vulnerability factor, with positive events not buffering against stress when they occur frequently. The study also found that resilient children, defined as those with high competence despite high stress, had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to competent children from low-stress backgrounds. This suggests that even resilient children may experience psychological difficulties under severe stress. The findings highlight the importance of personality attributes in moderating the effects of stress and the need for future research to explore these factors in longitudinal studies.