Using a contextual resilience framework, the authors examine the processes whereby bereaved persons change over time. Rather than the concept recovery, the authors propose that the concept adaptation best captures the process of change following bereavement and that the desired outcome of such adaptation is denoted by the term resilience. Adaptation occurs over time and is shaped by environmental and individual level risk and protective factors. By use of a "contextual resilience" framework, the authors emphasize the central role that person-environment transactions play versus the heavy emphasis on intrapersonal processes in some other approaches to resilience. (Contains 1 figure.)