Children who survived rigorous conditions when they traveled west with their parents in pioneer days share many of the same qualities of contemporary children who cope successfully in adverse situations, says Emmy Werner, a UC Davis professor emerita. Such pioneer children were active and outgoing, had the ability to attract love and other support from extended family and friends, and often had a strong religious faith that gave their lives meaning, Werner says in her new book, "Pioneer Children on the Journey West" (Westview Press). "Even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable hardships, they believed life made sense and that they had some control over their fate," Werner writes. Among the resilient youngsters were the child survivors of the Donner Party, the group of families whose 1846-47 journey became a wintertime ordeal in the Sierra Nevada. Werner, an internationally recognized developmental psychologist, has done extensive research with high-risk children exposed to extraordinary odds and is particularly interested in the roots of children's resiliency.