research topics with resilience

Exploring the science of resilience: critical review and bibliometric analysis

Review Article
Published: 04 October 2017
Volume 90 , pages 477–510, ( 2018 )

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Xiaolong Xue 1 ,
Liang Wang 1 &
Rebecca J. Yang 2

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The concept of resilience has experienced extraordinary development since the 1970s. Resilience is now an integral part of human society and has become a hot topic in different research domains. As an interdisciplinary discipline, resilience science is supported by multidisciplinary knowledge. Although research and practical work of resilience have been developed significantly, it is still unclear that how far resilience science has been progressed as a scientific discipline. In order to reveal the connotation and knowledge structure of resilience science, we systematically reviewed classic publications on resilience and compared its definitions and related research in different discipline domains. The evolution trend of resilience science was quantitatively analyzed to identify its knowledge foundation, geographic distribution, academic community, and collaboration structure. This analysis revealed the knowledge structure and development path of resilience science for future researchers. The results showed that the publications of resilience have been explosively increased since the 2000s. The developed countries made sound contributions to the research of resilience science, and China also presents a significant growth trend in this area. The collaborative relationship is becoming closer across research institutions and scholars. The research topics of resilience have been changing in the latest 30 years. The results reveal important highlights and future research directions of resilience science on academic domains including definition of resilience, measurement methods of network resilience, and mechanisms to forming resilient status. Moreover, this study will help researchers in resilience science for future collaboration and work.

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Adapted from Gunderson ( 2001 ) and Carpenter et al. ( 2001 )

Adapted from Bruneau et al. ( 2003 )

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 71671053, 71390522, 71271065). The work described in this paper was also funded by the National Science and Technology Program, China (No. 2014BAL05B06), and the National Key Research and Development Program, China (No. 2016YFC0701808).

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Xue, X., Wang, L. & Yang, R.J. Exploring the science of resilience: critical review and bibliometric analysis. Nat Hazards 90 , 477–510 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3040-y

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Published : 04 October 2017

Issue Date : January 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3040-y

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Building your resilience

We all face trauma, adversity, and other stresses. Here’s a roadmap for adapting to life-changing situations, and emerging even stronger than before.

Imagine you’re going to take a raft trip down a river. Along with slow water and shallows, your map shows that you will encounter unavoidable rapids and turns. How would you make sure you can safely cross the rough waters and handle any unexpected problems that come from the challenge?

Perhaps you would enlist the support of more experienced rafters as you plan your route or rely on the companionship of trusted friends along the way. Maybe you would pack an extra life jacket or consider using a stronger raft. With the right tools and supports in place, one thing is sure: You will not only make it through the challenges of your river adventure. You will also emerge a more confident and courageous rafter.

What is resilience?

Life may not come with a map, but everyone will experience twists and turns, from everyday challenges to traumatic events with more lasting impact, like the death of a loved one, a life-altering accident, or a serious illness. Each change affects people differently, bringing a unique flood of thoughts, strong emotions, and uncertainty. Yet people generally adapt well over time to life-changing situations and stressful situations—in part thanks to resilience.

Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. As much as resilience involves “bouncing back” from these difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth.

While these adverse events, much like rough river waters, are certainly painful and difficult, they don’t have to determine the outcome of your life. There are many aspects of your life you can control, modify, and grow with. That’s the role of resilience. Becoming more resilient not only helps you get through difficult circumstances, it also empowers you to grow and even improve your life along the way.

What resilience isn’t

Being resilient doesn’t mean that a person won’t experience difficulty or distress. People who have suffered major adversity or trauma in their lives commonly experience emotional pain and stress. In fact, the road to resilience is likely to involve considerable emotional distress.

While certain factors might make some individuals more resilient than others, resilience isn’t necessarily a personality trait that only some people possess. On the contrary, resilience involves behaviors, thoughts, and actions that anyone can learn and develop. The ability to learn resilience is one reason research has shown that resilience is ordinary, not extraordinary. One example is the response of many Americans to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and individuals’ efforts to rebuild their lives after tragedy.

Like building a muscle, increasing your resilience takes time and intentionality. Focusing on four core components—connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning—can empower you to withstand and learn from difficult and traumatic experiences. To increase your capacity for resilience to weather—and grow from—the difficulties, use these strategies.

Build your connections

Prioritize relationships. Connecting with empathetic and understanding people can remind you that you’re not alone in the midst of difficulties. Focus on finding trustworthy and compassionate individuals who validate your feelings, which will support the skill of resilience.

The pain of traumatic events can lead some people to isolate themselves, but it’s important to accept help and support from those who care about you. Whether you go on a weekly date night with your spouse or plan a lunch out with a friend, try to prioritize genuinely connecting with people who care about you.

Join a group. Along with one-on-one relationships, some people find that being active in civic groups, faith-based communities, or other local organizations provides social support and can help you reclaim hope. Research groups in your area that could offer you support and a sense of purpose or joy when you need it.

Foster wellness

Take care of your body. Self-care may be a popular buzzword, but it’s also a legitimate practice for mental health and building resilience. That’s because stress is just as much physical as it is emotional. Promoting positive lifestyle factors like proper nutrition, ample sleep, hydration, and regular exercise can strengthen your body to adapt to stress and reduce the toll of emotions like anxiety or depression.

Practice mindfulness. Mindful journaling, yoga, and other spiritual practices like prayer or meditation can also help people build connections and restore hope, which can prime them to deal with situations that require resilience. When you journal, meditate, or pray, ruminate on positive aspects of your life and recall the things you’re grateful for, even during personal trials.

Avoid negative outlets. It may be tempting to mask your pain with alcohol, drugs, or other substances, but that’s like putting a bandage on a deep wound. Focus instead on giving your body resources to manage stress, rather than seeking to eliminate the feeling of stress altogether.

Find purpose

Help others. Whether you volunteer with a local homeless shelter or simply support a friend in their own time of need, you can garner a sense of purpose, foster self-worth, connect with other people, and tangibly help others, all of which can empower you to grow in resilience.

Be proactive. It’s helpful to acknowledge and accept your emotions during hard times, but it’s also important to help you foster self-discovery by asking yourself, “What can I do about a problem in my life?” If the problems seem too big to tackle, break them down into manageable pieces.

For example, if you got laid off at work, you may not be able to convince your boss it was a mistake to let you go. But you can spend an hour each day developing your top strengths or working on your resume. Taking initiative will remind you that you can muster motivation and purpose even during stressful periods of your life, increasing the likelihood that you’ll rise up during painful times again.

Move toward your goals. Develop some realistic goals and do something regularly—even if it seems like a small accomplishment—that enables you to move toward the things you want to accomplish. Instead of focusing on tasks that seem unachievable, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I know I can accomplish today that helps me move in the direction I want to go?” For example, if you’re struggling with the loss of a loved one and you want to move forward, you could join a grief support group in your area.

Look for opportunities for self-discovery. People often find that they have grown in some respect as a result of a struggle. For example, after a tragedy or hardship, people have reported better relationships and a greater sense of strength, even while feeling vulnerable. That can increase their sense of self-worth and heighten their appreciation for life.

Embrace healthy thoughts

Keep things in perspective. How you think can play a significant part in how you feel—and how resilient you are when faced with obstacles. Try to identify areas of irrational thinking, such as a tendency to catastrophize difficulties or assume the world is out to get you, and adopt a more balanced and realistic thinking pattern. For instance, if you feel overwhelmed by a challenge, remind yourself that what happened to you isn’t an indicator of how your future will go, and that you’re not helpless. You may not be able to change a highly stressful event, but you can change how you interpret and respond to it.

Accept change. Accept that change is a part of life. Certain goals or ideals may no longer be attainable as a result of adverse situations in your life. Accepting circumstances that cannot be changed can help you focus on circumstances that you can alter.

Maintain a hopeful outlook. It’s hard to be positive when life isn’t going your way. An optimistic outlook empowers you to expect that good things will happen to you. Try visualizing what you want, rather than worrying about what you fear. Along the way, note any subtle ways in which you start to feel better as you deal with difficult situations.

Learn from your past. By looking back at who or what was helpful in previous times of distress, you may discover how you can respond effectively to new difficult situations. Remind yourself of where you’ve been able to find strength and ask yourself what you’ve learned from those experiences.

Seeking help

Getting help when you need it is crucial in building your resilience.

For many people, using their own resources and the kinds of strategies listed above may be enough for building their resilience. But at times, an individual might get stuck or have difficulty making progress on the road to resilience.

A licensed mental health professional such as a psychologist can assist people in developing an appropriate strategy for moving forward. It is important to get professional help if you feel like you are unable to function as well as you would like or perform basic activities of daily living as a result of a traumatic or other stressful life experience. Keep in mind that different people tend to be comfortable with different styles of interaction. To get the most out of your therapeutic relationship, you should feel at ease with a mental health professional or in a support group.

The important thing is to remember you’re not alone on the journey. While you may not be able to control all of your circumstances, you can grow by focusing on the aspects of life’s challenges you can manage with the support of loved ones and trusted professionals.

To find a licensed psychologist in your area, use our Psychologist Locator .

Acknowledgments

APA gratefully acknowledges the following contributors to this publication:

David Palmiter, PhD, professor of psychology, Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Mary Alvord, PhD, director, Alvord, Baker, and Associates, Rockville, Maryland.
Rosalind Dorlen, PsyD, member: Allied Professional Staff, Department of Psychiatry, Overlook Medical Center, Summit, New Jersey; senior faculty, Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey and field supervisor, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University.
Lillian Comas-Diaz, PhD, director, Transcultural Mental Health Institute, Washington, DC
Suniya S. Luthar, PhD, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York
Salvatore R. Maddi, PhD, The Hardiness Institute, Inc., University of California at Irvine, Newport Beach, California
H. Katherine (Kit) O’Neill, PhD, North Dakota State University and Knowlton, O’Neill, and Associates, Fargo, North Dakota
Karen W. Saakvitne, PhD, Traumatic Stress Institute/Center for Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy, South Windsor, Connecticut
Richard Glenn Tedeschi, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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The Top 10 Findings on Resilience and Engagement

From the adp research institute, the 10 most intriguing discoveries from a global study of resilience and engagement..

Workplace, Teams, & Culture
Managing Your Career
Organizational Behavior
Performance Management
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The challenges of the past year have threatened people’s physical and psychological well-being, both personally and professionally. But if business leaders and their teams are able to better discern where they currently stand in terms of their own physical and mental health, they will be better able to determine which actions to take to survive and ultimately thrive through current and future challenges.

My colleagues and I at the ADP Research Institute recently finished conducting a global study of resilience and engagement , looking at levels of both across 25 countries in 2020. We surveyed a minimum of 1,000 people per country, for a total of over 26,000 participants. Our hope in conducting this research was twofold: first, to help leaders become more engaged and resilient in their own lives, despite the deeply unsettling events of the past year; and second, to identify ways that leaders can build engagement and resilience in their employees.

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Before we dive in, it’s important to note that we define engagement as the emotional state of mind that causes people to do their best work sustainably, and resilience as the capacity of an individual to withstand, bounce back from, and work through challenging circumstances or events. Our validated survey instrument enabled us to calculate which employees were fully engaged — highly committed and willing to give their all to their team and organization. Fully engaged employees are dedicated to an organization’s purpose, certain in their definition of excellence, confident in the support of their teammates, and excited by their organization’s future. In contrast, we designated those employees who were not fully engaged as “just coming to work.”

Similarly, through the 10 items that measure and predict resilience, we were able to identify highly resilient employees who demonstrated agency and the ability to compartmentalize, felt psychologically safe, and demonstrated trust in their leaders’ abilities to anticipate the future, communicate, and follow through on commitments. 1 Those employees who were not highly resilient were designated as vulnerable . (See “The Relationship Between Engagement and Resilience” for more details on how engagement and resilience are correlated.)

About the Author

Marcus Buckingham ( @mwbuckingham ) is a New York Times bestselling author, a global researcher, and head of ADP Research Institute — People + Performance.

1. You can see the eight engagement questions on p. 6 of ADP Research Institute’s “ Global Workplace Study 2020 .”

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Open access
Published: 12 March 2022

The association of resilience with depression, anxiety, stress and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic

Quyen G. To 1 , 2 ,
Corneel Vandelanotte 1 ,
Kathryn Cope 2 ,
Saman Khalesi 1 , 2 ,
Susan L. Williams 1 , 2 ,
Stephanie J. Alley 1 , 2 ,
Tanya L. Thwaite 1 , 2 ,
Andrew S. Fenning 2 &
Robert Stanton 1 , 2

BMC Public Health volume 22 , Article number: 491 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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COVID-19 has resulted in substantial global upheaval. Resilience is important in protecting wellbeing, however few studies have investigated changes in resilience over time, and associations between resilience with depression, anxiety, stress, and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online surveys were conducted to collect both longitudinal and cross-sectional data at three time points during 2020. Australian adults aged 18 years and over were invited to complete the online surveys. Measures include the six-item Brief Resilience Scale, the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, and the Active Australia Survey which have eight items identifying the duration and frequency of walking, and moderate and vigorous physical activities (MVPA), over the past 7 days. General linear mixed models and general linear models were used in the analysis.

In the longitudinal sample, adjusted differences (aDif) in resilience scores did not significantly change over time (time 2 vs. time 1 [aDif = − 0.02, 95% CI = − 0.08, 0.03], and time 3 vs. time 1 [aDif = < 0.01, 95% CI = − 0.07, 0.06]). On average, those engaging in at least 150 min of MVPA per week (aDif = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.16), and having depression (aDif = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.33), anxiety (aDif = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.26, 0.41), and stress scores (aDif = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.23, 0.37) within the normal range had significantly higher resilience scores. The association between resilience and physical activity was independent of depression, anxiety, and stress levels. All results were similar for the cross-sectional sample.

Conclusions

Resilience scores did not change significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there were significant associations between resilience with physical activity and psychological distress. This research helps inform future interventions to enhance or nurture resilience, particularly targeted at people identified as at risk of psychological distress.

Peer Review reports

Initially reported in November 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected more than 244 million people worldwide, with more than 4.9 million deaths (25 October 2021) [ 1 ]. In addition to causing a global health emergency, there has been subsequent social and economic repercussions on the world’s population due to government-imposed restrictions to protect public health [ 2 ]. How people respond to a persistent stressor, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may vary based on individual resilience levels [ 3 ], which can be defined as “the process involving an ability to withstand and cope with ongoing or repeated demands and maintain healthy functioning in different domains of life such as work and family”(p.637) [ 4 ]. Understanding resilience and how it changes across time may help in designing interventions that aim to minimise psychological distress.

Few studies have examined changes in resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sturman (2020) compared levels of resilience in the United States prior to the declaration of a global pandemic (November and December 2019), to levels in the early stages of the pandemic (mid-April 2020), and found no significant change over time [ 5 ]. Similarly, Kim et al. (2020) found no significant differences in resilience of Israeli adults between the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Government-enforced restrictions were imposed, and 2 months later when the restrictions had been lifted [ 6 ]. However, a USA study found that resilience in the third week of COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions (April 2020) were lower compared to normative data collected before the pandemic [ 7 ]. Additionally, we could not identify any studies examining longitudinal changes in resilience in Australian adults.

Resilience is an important protective factor against psychological distress. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that older adults with higher resilience were less likely to have depressive symptoms [ 8 ]; however, no Australian studies were included. To our knowledge, only two studies of resilience and depression have been undertaken in Australia. One study among Iranian immigrants living in Australia found lower levels of resilience associated with higher levels of depression [ 9 ]. In contrast, another study found no significant associations between resilience and depression among homeless people in regional Australia [ 10 ]. The association between resilience and anxiety was also investigated in another study that found higher levels of resilience was associated with less anxiety among Australians aged 55–90 years [ 11 ]. Additionally, several pilot interventions that aimed to improve participants’ resilience through education workshops appeared to have positive effects in mitigating workplace stress among Australian nurses [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. However, these previous studies are limited by their cross-sectional design or were not conducted among the general population. A more recent study of Australian parents reported loneliness as a significant contributor to stress during the pandemic, however high levels of social support were associated with both lower stress and anxiety [ 15 ]. Healthcare professionals are also predisposed to significant distress and anxiety, despite high levels of resilience, suggesting resilience alone is insufficient as a protective toll against poor mental health [ 16 ].

Physical activity is an important health behaviour that benefits both physical and mental health [ 17 ]. Studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic consistently show strong positive associations between resilience and physical activity levels [ 7 , 18 , 19 ]. One possible underlying mechanism for this association could be due to the positive effect of physical activity on mental health [ 20 ]. However, whether physical activity is associated with resilience, independent of mental health status, has not been investigated in these cross-sectional studies. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no Australian study of these relationships has been found.

Therefore, this study aims to investigate: 1) changes in the resilience level of Australian adults over time during the pandemic; and 2) associations between resilience with depression, anxiety, stress, and physical activity. Findings from this study contribute important insights into the role of resilience for physical activity behaviour and psychological distress among Australian adults during the pandemic.

Study design and participants

Online surveys were conducted to collect both longitudinal and cross-sectional data at three time points. The first survey was conducted early on during the COVID-19 pandemic from 9th to 19th April 2020; the second from 30th July to 16th August 2020; and the third between 1st and 25th December 2020. During the first time point, Australian state governments had adopted extraordinary measures to reduce the rates of infection including social distancing, lockdowns, and travel restrictions. During the second time point, all Australian states except Victoria had relaxed restrictions due to low case numbers of the infection. At the time of the third survey, most COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in all States and Territories as the rates of infection were largely under control [ 21 , 22 ].

At each survey, participants (including new participants recruited for survey 2) were asked if they would like to participate in future data collection opportunities. Those completing at least two surveys became part of a longitudinal cohort while those who elected to complete only one survey formed the cross-sectional cohort. The surveys were anonymous and hosted on the Qualtrics survey platform. Australian adults aged 18 years and over were invited to complete the surveys using paid Facebook advertising, social media (e.g., Twitter) and institutional sources including email lists. Online informed consent was provided by all participants after they had read the information sheet that outlined the nature of their participation, the risks and benefits of participation, and how the data would be used. Ethical approval was granted by Central Queensland University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval number 22332).

Demographic characteristics included age (years), gender, years of schooling, weekly household income (< 1000 AUD, 1000 - < 2000 AUD, or ≥ 2000 AUD), and marital status (in a relationship or not). Chronic disease status (Yes/No) was identified using the question; “Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have any chronic health problems?”. These included one or a combination of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, psychotic illness, bipolar disorder, diabetes, arthritis, chronic back/neck pain, asthma, COPD, and chronic kidney/renal diseases [ 23 ].

Resilience was assessed using the six-item Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). The BRS measures an individuals’ ability to bounce back from an adverse event and focuses on the ability to recover [ 24 ]. The BRS is a reliable measure of resilience, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.80 to 0.91 and a 1 month test-retest reliability (ICC) of 0.69 [ 24 ]. The BRS is comprised of six items with three positively worded items (1, 3, and 5) and negatively worded items (2, 4, and 6). For example, a positive item states “I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times” while a negative item states “I have a hard time making it through stressful events”. Responses were provided on a 5-point Likert scale with anchors at 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). The scale was scored by reverse coding the negative items and then averaging the total score for the six items. Final scores range from 1.0–5.0 with a score of 3.0–4.3 considered a normal level of resilience [ 25 ].

Psychological distress was measured using the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) [ 26 ]. The DASS-21 has shown acceptable construct validity and high reliability (Cronbach’s alphas were 0.88, 0.82 and 0.90 for depression, anxiety and stress respectively) in a non-clinical adult population [ 27 ]. Each domain has seven items scored on a 4-point Likert scale between 0 (did not apply to me at all) and 3 (applied to me very much, or most of the time). Example items were “I was aware of dryness of my mouth” or “I found myself getting agitated”. A score was calculated for each domain by adding the scores for the relevant items and multiplying by two. Standard cut-points were used to determine whether participants had symptom severity above normal for depression (≥10 points), anxiety (≥8 points), and stress (≥15 points) [ 26 ].

Physical activity was assessed using the Active Australia Survey (AAS), which comprises eight items identifying the duration and frequency of walking, and moderate and vigorous (MVPA) physical activities, over the past 7 days. For example, questions about walking are “In the last week, how many times have you walked continuously, for at least 10 minutes, for recreation, exercise or to get to or from places?” and “What do you estimate was the total time that you spent walking in this way in the last week?”. The AAS guidelines were used to calculate total physical activity by summing minutes of walking, minutes of moderate activity, and minutes of vigorous activity (multiplied by 2). Participants were then categorised as meeting the physical activity guidelines (≥150 min of moderate – vigorous (MVPA) per week) or not (< 150 min MVPA per week) [ 28 ]. The AAS criterion validity has been found to be acceptable for use in self-administered format, with correlations between self-reported physical activity and weekly pedometer steps, and accelerometry being 0.43 and 0.52 respectively [ 29 ].

Statistical analysis was undertaken using SAS software v9.4. Two datasets, longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional, were analysed separately. Participants completing at least two surveys were included in the longitudinal dataset. The repeated cross-sectional dataset excluded those in the longitudinal dataset and therefore included only those completing one survey. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and percentages) were calculated and are presented for each time point. Changes in resilience scores were examined using general linear mixed models for the longitudinal data, and general linear models for cross-sectional data. In addition to bivariate analyses, estimated changes in resilience scores were also adjusted for age, gender, years of education, weekly household income, relationship status, and chronic disease status. Multiple comparison correction was applied using the simulation option in PROC GLIMMIX.

Associations between resilience scores with physical activity and depression, anxiety, and stress were also examined using general linear mixed models for the longitudinal data and general linear models for the cross-sectional data. Three models were run for both datasets. Model 1 included resilience scores, time and either physical activity, depression, anxiety, or stress. Model 2 included the additional covariates: age, gender, years of education, weekly household income, relationship status, and chronic disease status. To examine whether the observed associations were independent, physical activity, depression, anxiety, and stress were also included in Model 3 together with time and all other covariates.

Due to missing values for the household income variable being higher than 10%, analyses were conducted with and without household income as a covariate. As the results between these two analyses did not change the findings, only models including household income are presented. Crude and adjusted differences in resilience scores with 95% confidence intervals are reported. All p -values were two sided and considered significant if < 0.05.

Table 1 shows characteristics of the longitudinal sample. At baseline, the majority of respondents were women (68.7%) and in a relationship (64.6%), with almost half reporting a chronic disease (47.5%). On average, participants were 52.5 (SD = 14.3) years old and had about 16 (SD = 4.7) years of education. Most had scores within the normal range for depression (64.0%), anxiety (80.7%), and stress (72.9%). More than half met the physical activity guidelines (56.4%). Average resilience score was about 3.4 out of 5.0 and within the normal range (3.0–4.3). The characteristics of those in the cross-sectional sample were very similar (Table 2 ).

Table 3 shows changes in resilience scores over time. In the longitudinal sample, crude (Model 1) and adjusted differences (aDif) (Model 2) in resilience scores were not significant between time 2 vs. time 1 (aDif = − 0.02, 95% CI = − 0.08, 0.03), and time 3 vs. time 1 (aDif = < 0.01, 95% CI = − 0.07, 0.06). Similarly, in the cross-sectional sample, crude and adjusted differences in resilience scores were not significant between time 2 vs. time 1 (aDif = − 0.04, 95% CI = − 0.14, 0.07), and time 3 vs. time 1 (aDif = − 0.02, 95% CI = − 0.15, 0.11).

Table 4 shows associations between resilience scores with physical activity, depression, anxiety, and stress. On average, those engaging in at least 150 min of MVPA per week had a significantly higher resilience score (Model 2) in the longitudinal (aDif = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.16) and cross-sectional samples (aDif = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.27). Resilience scores were also significantly higher for those with depression scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.33, 0.46; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.64, 0.79), anxiety scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.26, 0.41; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.60, 0.77), and stress scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.23, 0.37; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.63, 0.80). Additionally, model 3 shows significant associations between resilience with physical activity, depression, anxiety, and stress, independently from one another. Specifically, resilience scores were, on average, higher for those engaging in at least 150 min MVPA per week (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.13; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.21), having depression scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.22, 0.37; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.37, 0.53), anxiety scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.27; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.10, 0.30), and stress scores in the normal range (longitudinal sample: aDif = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.19; cross-sectional sample: aDif = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.20, 0.40).

This study aimed to investigate changes in resilience of Australian adults across three time points in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associations between resilience and physical activity, depression, anxiety, and stress. The findings show that resilience scores did not change significantly during the pandemic and that participants who engaged in at least 150 MVPA minutes per week, and with depression, anxiety, and stress scores within the normal range, had higher resilience scores. The findings were consistent between the longitudinal and cross-sectional datasets; however, the effects were larger in the cross-sectional data.

Given the extraordinary social circumstances brought about by Australian state governments to enforce movement restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the uncertainty as a result of the health and economic impact of the pandemic, resilience levels may have changed. However, the results from this study suggest that resilience levels largely remained stable during the pandemic, which is consistent with the results from a study in Israel [ 6 ]. This is likely due to the samples (both longitudinal and cross-sectional) including mostly Australian adults (about three quarters) with high or normal levels of resilience. Therefore, they may manage and adapt well to the impacts caused by the pandemic. Another factor may be that the Australian government was effective in responding to the pandemic (ranking 3rd among OECD countries) and providing Australians with financial support and mental health consultation via telehealth [ 30 ], and therefore helping to alleviate the impacts. It is less likely, but also possible, that levels of resilience may have decreased between pre-COVID-19 and our first survey. Unfortunately, pre-COVID-19 data are not available for comparison. However, one study comparing two cross-sectional samples in small towns in upstate New York found no significant difference in resilience between pre-COVID-19 (November and December 2019) and peak-COVID-19 (mid-April 2020) [ 5 ].

Our findings are consistent with previous studies that have found inverse associations between levels of resilience and psychological distress among patients with chronic diseases [ 31 , 32 , 33 ], and medical students [ 34 , 35 ]. This finding is also consistent with those from other studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S [ 36 , 37 ] and Italy [ 38 ]. These associations were expected, as resilience reflects an individual’s ability to cope with life’s adversity, trauma, and threats; and therefore, plays a role as an adaptive defence system against psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, and stress [ 39 ]. Given their significant effects on resilience, depression, anxiety, and stress are important factors that should be considered in interventions to improve resilience level in adult populations.

Resilience was also found to be positively associated with physical activity levels in studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is consistent with findings in the present study [ 7 , 18 , 19 ]. The positive effects of physical activity on resilience may occur through improving mental health and possible underlying mechanisms for this were discussed by Silverman et al. (2014) [ 20 ]. For example, physical activity could serve as a buffer against stress and stress-related disorders. Physical activity also has benefits on brain and hormonal stress-responsive systems that could improve mood and cognition [ 20 , 40 ]. In this study, we found that physical activity was associated with resilience, independent of depression, anxiety, and stress levels. Although the effect size of physical activity (adjusted difference of 0.07 points) was small compared to that of depression (0.30 points), anxiety (0.19 points), and stress (0.12 points). Given that physical activity has other benefits on both physical and mental health [ 17 ], it is still an important factor for consideration in interventions targeting resilience levels.

There are a number of strengths in this study. First, the sample size is large with participants from all states and territories in Australia. Second, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to explore levels of resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. However, the study has limitations. Participation in this study was voluntary with nearly half of the sample having at least one chronic health condition and therefore, the findings may not be generalisable to populations with different characteristics. The self-reported questionnaires are also subject to recall bias, despite being validated instruments. In addition, the first survey started when the pandemic had already begun; and no pre-COVID-19 data was available. Therefore, it is not possible to know whether (and how) resilience scores changed between the pre-COVID-19 period and the first survey.

For the future, the findings from this study helps inform interventions that aim to enhance or nurture resilience. In particular, health promotion strategies that screen for, then target people identified as being at risk of psychological distress, those with low levels of resilience, or those not meeting the physical activity guidelines may maximize the effects of the interventions. Primary health care providers, Government websites, not-for-profit, or other mental health services could provide rapid screening then direct people to appropriate care.

Resilience scores did not change significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants who met the physical activity guidelines, had depression, anxiety, and stress scores within the normal range, had higher resilience scores compared to those who were less active and those with more psychological distress. Maintaining healthy behaviours such as regular physical activity may buffer the adverse psychological effect of the pandemic and maintain mental health and wellbeing.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

the Active Australia Survey

The Brief Resilience Scale

the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale

Moderate and Vigorous Physical Activity

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Resilience Theory: A Summary of the Research (+PDF)

Resilience theory argues that it’s not the nature of adversity that is most important, but how we deal with it.

When we face adversity, misfortune, or frustration, resilience helps us bounce back. It helps us survive, recover, and even thrive in the face and wake of misfortune, but that’s not all there is to it.

Read on to learn about resilience theory in a little more depth, including its relationship with shame, organizations, and more.

But first, we thought you might like to download our three Resilience Exercises for free . These engaging, science-based exercises will help you to effectively deal with difficult circumstances and give you the tools to improve the resilience of your clients, students or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is resilience theory.

6 Impactful Articles on Resilience and Mental Toughness

What Research in Positive Psychology Shows

Resilience theory in social work, family resilience theory, shame resilience theory, community resilience theory, organizational resilience theory, the ‘science of resilience’, norman garmezy’s main findings and contribution, seligman’s 3ps model of resilience, a take-home message.

Resilience has been defined in numerous ways.

Defining resilience

The following definitions abound:

“the ability to bounce back from adversity, frustration, and misfortune”

Ledesma, 2014, p.1

“the developable capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, and failure or even positive events, progress, and increased responsibility”

Luthans, 2002a, p. 702

“a stable trajectory of healthy functioning after a highly adverse event”

Bonanno, 2004; Bonanno, Westphal, & Mancini, 2011

“the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully”

Masten, 2014; Southwick, Bonanno, Masten, Panter-Brick, & Yehuda, 2014

When a panel discussion asked researchers to debate the nature of resilience , all agreed that resilience is complex. As a construct, it can have a different meaning between people, companies, cultures, and society. They also agreed that people could be more resilient at one point in their lives and less during another, and that they may be more resilient in some aspects of their lives than others (Southwick et al., 2014).

In case you’re interested, the table below from Greene, Galambos, and Lee (2004) shows even more ways resilience has been described.

Resilience theory

Resilience as a concept is not necessarily straightforward, and there are many operational definitions in existence. Resilience theory, according to van Breda (2018, p. 1), is the study of the things that make this phenomenon whole:

Its definition; What ‘adversity’ and ‘outcomes’ actually mean, and; The scope and nature of resilience processes.

6 Impactful Resilience Articles on Resilience and Mental Toughness

Ready to learn a bit more about resilience theory? For those who are keen to dig into the literature, this list demonstrates precisely how widely the concept can be applied: in social work, organizations, childhood development contexts, and more. You’ll find the full citations for these papers in the Reference section at the end of this article.

1. A Critical Review of Resilience Theory and Its Relevance for Social Work

In this literature review, Adrian van Breda (2018) considers peer-reviewed articles on resilience in the field of social work, discussing the evolution of an (as-yet to be established) consensus on its definition. He considers how it works and developments in the theory, looking at the study of resilience in South African cultures and societies.

2. Resilience Theory and Research on Children and Families: Past, Present, and Promise

Masten is known for her work on resilience and its role in helping families and children deal with adversity . In this article, she defines resilience as “the capacity of a system to adapt successfully to significant challenges that threaten its function, viability, or development” (Masten, 2018, p. 1).

Masten delves into the theory’s history and its research in this field in an attempt to integrate applications, models, and knowledge that may help children and their families grow and adjust.

3. Family Resilience: A Developmental Systems Framework

Professor Froma Walsh, cofounder of the Chicago Center for Family Health, has written extensively on family resilience and the positive adaptation of family units. In Family Resilience: A Developmental Systems Framework , Walsh (2016) considers the key processes in family resilience and gives a great overview of the concept from a family systems perspective.

4. Community Resilience: Toward an Integrated Approach

Berkes and Ross (2013) examined two distinct approaches to understanding community resilience: a social-ecological approach and a mental health and developmental psychology perspective. This article, which we unpack a little more further on, is a great read for anyone with an academic interest in the growing research on resilience at the community level.

5. Organizational Resilience: Towards a Theory and Research Agenda

Vogus and Sutcliffe (2007) attempted to define organizational resilience and examine its underpinning mechanisms. Their paper considers the relational, cognitive, structural, and affective elements of the construct before proposing some research questions for those with an academic interest in the topic.

6. Are Adolescents With High Mental Toughness Levels More Resilient Against Stress?

Download 3 Free Resilience Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients to recover from personal challenges and turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.

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Resilience and positive psychology are often closely related. Both are concerned with how promotive factors work, and both look at how a beneficial construct can facilitate our wellbeing (Luthar, Lyman, & Crossman, 2014).

Resilience theory and positive psychology are both applied fields of study, meaning that we can use them in daily life to benefit humanity, and both are very closely concentrated on the importance of social relationships (Luthar, 2006; Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura, 2011).

So let’s look at what positive psychology research shows on resilience.

Character strengths and resilience

Strengths such as gratitude, kindness, hope, and bravery have been shown to act as protective factors against life’s adversities, helping us adapt positively and cope with difficulties such as physical and mental illness (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013).

Some character strengths can also be significant predictors of resilience, with particular correlations between resilience and emotional, intellectual, and restraint-related strengths (Martínez-Martí & Ruch, 2017).

In their 2017 study, Martínez-Martí and Ruch found that hope, bravery, and zest had the most extensive relationship with positive adaptation in the face of challenge. This led the researchers to speculate that processes such as determination, social connectedness, emotional regulation , and more were at play.

From this particular cross-sectional study, however, no causal relationship was determined. In other words, we don’t know whether resilience impacts our strengths or vice versa.

The effect may work the other way around with adversity, and post-traumatic growth helps us build character strengths, but nonetheless, it’s an example of resilience and positive psychology’s interconnection (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995; Peterson, Park, Pole, D’Andrea, & Seligman, 2008).

Resilience and positive emotions

Most people think of happiness whenever positive psychology is mentioned, so are happiness and resilience related? Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, and Conway (2009) suggested that they may well be. To be specific, happiness is a positive emotion.

According to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, happiness is one emotion that helps us become more explorative and adaptable in our thoughts and behaviors. We create enduring resources that help us live well (Fredrickson, 2004).

Cohn et al. (2009) found that participants who frequently experienced positive emotions such as happiness grew more satisfied with their lives by creating resources, such as ego resilience, that helped them tackle a wide variety of challenges.

These results correspond with other evidence that positive emotions can facilitate resource growth and findings that link psychological resilience with physical health, psychological wellbeing, and positive affect (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005; Nath & Pradhan, 2012).

Its role in positive organizational behavior

Other studies have looked at resilience as one of numerous coping positive psychological resources, alongside optimism and hope.

Positive organizational behavior has been defined by Luthans (2002b, p. 59) as “the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace.”

Can training employees help encourage positive organizational behavior? The jury is still out (Robertson, Cooper, Sarkar, & Curran, 2015).

Some of the reasons for this are the central role of community relationships to both academic fields and the key social work principle that people should accept responsibility for one another’s wellbeing (International Federation of Social Workers, 2014).

One of the main drivers for more resilience theory research in social work contexts is the idea that identifying resilience-building factors can help at-risk clients in the following ways (Greene et al., 2004):

Promoting their competence and improving their health Helping them overcome adversity and navigate life stressors Boosting their ability to grow and survive

Concerning social workers, key issues in the field include:

Identifying protective factors and using them to inform interventions Using practical applications to promote the capacity and strength of individual clients, societies, and communities Understanding how social work policy and services promote or hinder wellbeing and social and economic injustice

Social work strategies for building client resilience

Greene et al.’s (2004) research also investigated the strategies and skills social workers relied on to boost the resilience of their clients. Some of these included:

Providing clients with safety and necessities when faced with adversity or traumatic events; for example, talking calmly with distressed individuals, reassuring them of their capabilities and ability to get through their troubles.

Listening, being present and honest, and learning from individuals’ stories while acknowledging their pain.

Promoting interpersonal relationships, attachments, and connections between people in a community or society.

Encouraging them to view themselves as a valued member of society.

Modeling resilient behaviors, such as dealing with work stress in healthy ways.

Realizing Resilience Masterclass

For social workers, therapists, and educators, an immense benefit can be gained from being able to boost your client’s resilience. To do so, enrolling in our Realizing Resilience Masterclass course would equip you to strengthen others, guide them, and teach them the six pillars of resilience.

This masterclass, based on scientific techniques, will provide you with all the material you need to deliver exceptional resilience training sessions. It is the ultimate shortcut to help others become more resilient. For more information, view our Realizing Resilience Masterclass page.

Shame resilience – Noor Pinna

Family resilience has been defined in several ways. One way of viewing the construct is as the “characteristics, dimensions, and properties of families which help families to be resistant to disruption in the face of change and adaptive in the face of crisis situations’’ (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1988, p. 247).

Another more recent definition describes it as the “capacity of the family, as a functional system, to withstand and rebound from stressful life challenges – emerging strengthened and more resourceful’’ (Walsh, 1996; 2003; 2016).

Both of these definitions take the concept of individual psychological or emotional resilience and apply it at a broader level; one of the key areas that interests researchers is how families respond immediately when faced with challenges and over the longer term (Walsh, 2016).

Family resilience processes

In a meta-analysis on family resilience, Walsh (2003) proposed that the concept involves nine dynamic processes that interact with one another and help families strengthen their ties while developing more resources and competencies.

Making sense of adversity – e.g., normalizing distress and contextualizing it, viewing crises as manageable and meaningful
Having a positive outlook – e.g., focusing on potential, having hope and optimism
Spirituality and transcendence – e.g., growing positively from adversity and connecting with larger values
Flexibility – e.g., reorganizing and restabilizing to provide predictability and continuity
Connectedness – e.g., providing each other with mutual support and committing to one another
Mobilizing economic and social resources – e.g., creating financial security and seeking support from the community at large
Clarity – e.g., providing one another with information and consistent messages
Sharing emotions openly – including positive and painful feelings
Solving problems collaboratively – e.g., through joint decision-making, a goal-focus, and building on successes

The theory attempts to study how we respond to and defeat shame, an emotion we all experience. Brown (2008) describes shame resilience theory as the ability to recognize this negative emotion when we feel it and overcome it constructively in such a way that we can “retain our authenticity and grow from our experiences.”

Read more about shame resilience theory in this excellent article: Shame Resilience Theory : How to Respond to Feelings of Shame .

A community resilience concept

Magis (2010, p. 401) defined community resilience as the ”existence, development and engagement of community resources by community members to thrive in an environment characterized by change, uncertainty, unpredictability, and surprise.”

In other words, one approach to defining community resilience emphasizes the importance of individual mental health and personal development on a social system’s capacity to unite and collaborate toward a shared goal or objective (Berkes & Ross, 2013).

The key focus of community resilience is on identifying and developing both individual and community strengths and establishing the processes that underpin resilience-promoting factors (Buikstra et al., 2010). Its goals also include understanding how communities leverage these strengths together to facilitate self-organization and agency, which then contributes to a collective process of overcoming challenges and adversity (Berkes & Ross, 2013).

Community resilience is considered an ongoing process of personal development in dealing with adversity through adaptation and understandably plays a vital role in social work contexts (Almedom, Tesfamichael, Mohammed, Mascie-Taylor, & Alemu, 2007).

Relevant research questions related to community resilience theory include (Berkes & Ross, 2013):

What are the characteristics of individual and community resilience, and how can these be fostered (Buikstra et al., 2010)?
How is community resilience related to health, and how are health professionals able to help (Kulig, 2000; Kulig, Edge, & Joyce, 2008; Kulig, Hegney, & Edge, 2010)?
How can community resilience improve readiness for disaster (Norris, Stevens, Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008)?

Community strengths promoting resilience

While community strengths vary between groups, Berkes and Ross (2013) identified a few characteristics that have a central role in helping communities develop resilience. These strengths, processes, and attributes include:

Social networks and support
Early experience
People–place connections
Engaged governance
Community problem-solving
Ability to cope with divisions

Just as people can develop their resilience, organizations can learn to rebound from and adapt after facing challenges. Organizational resilience can be thought of as “a ‘culture of resilience,’ which manifests itself as a form of ‘psychological immunity’” to incremental and transformational changes, according to Boston Consulting Group Fellow Dr. George Stalk, Jr. (Everly, 2011).

With a host of factors contributing to a dynamic and sometimes turbulent business environment, organizational resilience has gained incredible salience in recent years. And at the heart of it, Everly argues, are optimism and perceived self-efficacy.

How to build organizational resilience

A culture of organizational resilience relies heavily on role-modeling behaviors. Even a few credible and high-profile individuals in a company demonstrating resilient behaviors may encourage others to do the same (Everly, 2011).

These behaviors include:

Persisting in the face of adversity
Putting effort into dealing with challenges
Practicing and demonstrating self-aiding thought patterns
Providing support to and mentoring others
Leading with integrity
Practicing open communication
Showing decisiveness

Read more about Positive Organizations here.

InBrief: the science of resilience

Are some people born more resilient than others? Southwick and Charney (2012) discussed human biological responses to trauma and looked at a sample of high-risk individuals to understand why some are more able to cope even in the face of life-changing adversity.

They examined three samples of participants to investigate whether these individuals had a genetic predisposition toward being more resilient:

Special Forces instructors
Vietnam prisoners of war
Individuals who had suffered considerable trauma

Southwick and Charney (2012) looked at the psychological factors of these individuals; their genetic factors; and their spiritual, social, and biological factors.

The results:

Risk and protective factors generally have additive and interactive effects… having multiple genetic, developmental, neurobiological, and/or psychosocial risk factors will increase allostatic load or stress vulnerability, whereas having and enhancing multiple protective factors will increase the likelihood of stress resilience.

Put succinctly, genetic factors do have an important influence on our responses to trauma and stress. The image below gives a good overview of their findings.

Source: Southwick & Charney, 2012, p. 81

In the article , mentioned in our References section, you can learn more about two key concepts that are central to resilience theory:

Learned helplessness – where individuals believe they are incapable of changing or controlling their circumstances after repeatedly experiencing a stressful event
Stress inoculation – whereby they can develop an “adaptive stress response and become more resilient than normal to the negative effects of future stressors” (Southwick & Charney, 2012, p. 80)

University of Minnesota developmental psychologist Norman Garmezy is one of the best-known contributors to resilience theory as we know it. His seminal work on resilience focused on how we could prevent mental illness through protective factors such as motivation, cognitive skills, social change, and personal ‘voice’ (Garmezy, 1992).

His pioneering work included the Project Competence Longitudinal Study (PCLS), which contributed operational definitions, frameworks, measures, and more to the study of competence and resilience. Started around 1974, the PCLS was developed to enable more structured and rigorous resilience research and look into protective buffers that help children overcome adversity (Masten & Tellegen, 2012).

One of its more impactful discoveries was that resilience is a dynamic construct that changes over time; another was the concept of developmental cascades, which describe how functioning in one domain can influence other levels of adaptive function.

If you’re curious to find out more about the work of Norman Garmezy, Masten and Tellegen’s (2012) paper is a great read: Resilience in Developmental Psychopathology: Contributions of the Project Competence Longitudinal Study .

17 Tools To Build Resilience and Coping Skills

Empower others with the skills to manage and learn from inevitable life challenges using these 17 Resilience & Coping Exercises [PDF] , so you can increase their ability to thrive.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

The best-known positive psychology framework for resilience is Seligman’s 3Ps model.

These three Ps – personalization, pervasiveness, and permanence – refer to three emotional reactions that we tend to have to adversity. By addressing these three, often automatic, responses, we can build resilience and grow, developing our adaptability and learning to cope better with challenges.

Seligman’s (1990) 3Ps are:

Personalization – a cognitive distortion that’s best described as the internalization of problems or failure. When we hold ourselves accountable for bad things that happen, we put a lot of unnecessary blame on ourselves and make it harder to bounce back.

Pervasiveness – assuming negative situations spread across different areas of our life; for example, losing a contest and assuming that all is doom and gloom in general. By acknowledging that bad feelings don’t impact every life domain, we can move forward toward a better life.

Permanence – believing that bad experiences or events last forever, rather than being transient or one-off events. Permanence prevents us from putting effort into improving our situation, often making us feel overwhelmed and as though we can’t recover.

These three perspectives help us understand how our thoughts, mindset, and beliefs affect our experiences. By recognizing their role in our ability to adapt positively, we can start becoming more resilient and learn to bounce back from life’s challenges.

Resilience is something we can all develop, whether we want to grow as individuals, as a family, or as a society more broadly. If you’re interested in developing your psychological resilience, our Realizing Resilience Masterclass uses science-based tools and techniques to help you understand the concept better and cultivate more “bounce-back.”

Or, if you’re hoping to read more about the topic in general, we’ve got a vast range of blog posts, worksheets, and activities in our Resilience & Coping section on this site. Before you go, though, tell us, what interests you most about resilience theory and what fields have you been applying it in professionally?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Resilience Exercises for free .

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This article seems very interesting and explains a lot of theory. For my PhD, I am seeking a suggestion regarding which theory or model would be particularly fit for a topic that addresses individual and organisational resilience to adapt in a disrupted labor market.

intresting PhD topic! Here are a few suggestions: – Resilience Theory : Explores how individuals and organizations withstand and adapt to adversity, offering insights into bouncing back from labor market challenges. – Psychological Capital (PsyCap) Theory : Investigates the role of an individual’s positive psychological state (hope, efficacy, resilience, optimism) in fostering adaptability and resilience.

I hope this helps and all the best with your research 🙂 Warm regards, Julia | Community Manager

Very good and interesting………….

This is a terrific summary of a complex area. Connect with me on LinkedIn please – I’m writing in this field also.

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Research on resilience in stressful times May 27, 2020

Resilience: something we’re all hoping for during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the ability of cells, organs, individuals or societies to resist, bounce back from, or successfully adapt to stressors. Stressors come in many forms: viruses or other pathogens, chemotherapy, physical injury, social adversity or psychological trauma. Resilient people are better able to heal, stay mentally and physically healthy, and maintain mobility or cognitive function.

During home quarantine, loneliness, anxiety, economic uncertainty, and sickness or death among loved ones can compound existing stressors. NIA-supported studies on psychological, physiological, cognitive and other forms of resilience are helping researchers better understand the mechanisms underlying resilience and advance toward the goal of better prevention and treatment approaches for older adults.

Why we study resilience and aging

Measures of resilience — including indicators of the ability to bounce back in immunity, mobility and cognitive ability — often show decline with age. But specific life experiences, environmental exposures and genetic factors may render some people more resilient than others to stressors and age-related conditions, including cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). Developing valid and predictive measures of resilience can help clarify the behavioral, social, physiological and neural mechanisms that promote more successful aging.

A broad resilience and reserve portfolio

NIA has sponsored a variety of Funding Opportunity Announcements to accelerate research into resilience, both in animal models and in people. NIA also supports resilience-related research efforts and events throughout other areas of our institution, including but not limited to:

A new longitudinal study, STARRRS — Successful Trajectories of Aging: Reserve and Resilience in RatS , conducted through NIA’s Intramural Research Program, is designed to build an open-source data and sample hub to investigate factors that impact neurocognitive aging.
NIA supports several longitudinal, population-based studies on aging, such as the Health and Retirement Study and MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.) , that enable research on psychosocial, cognitive, and physiological resilience in humans to various forms of stress and adversity.
NIA recently participated in the trans-NIH OppNet ( PAR-16-326 ), an opportunity to link our behavioral and social research on resilience with work supported by other NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices.
Two waves of the funding initiative Interdisciplinary Research to Understand the Complex Biology of Resilience to Alzheimer’s Disease Risk (R01) led to establishing NIA’s Resilience-AD program, a multidisciplinary, collaborative research effort on genetic and environmental factors affecting cognitive resilience in individuals at high risk for AD/ADRD.
The Reserve and Resilience Workshop held in September 2019 brought 285 international researchers to the first of three annual meetings to establish a collaboratory on research definitions for cognitive reserve and resilience to AD/ADRD. Registration is now open for a second Workshop on Research Definitions for Reserve and Resilience in Cognitive Aging and Dementia coming up on September 14-15, 2020.

Most recently, several NIA staff presented at the Research Centers Collaborative Network (RCCN) webinar Resilience and Reserve: Defining, Refining and Advancing Research in Aging . They discussed current definitions of resilience and reserve, what makes these topics distinct, and NIA’s portfolio of programs and resources. Archived online, this one-hour webinar is an excellent primer on starting or growing your research in this exciting field.

Submit your innovative ideas and stay tuned for upcoming events!

NIA welcomes innovative applications on resilience in aging at all levels of analysis and in humans, animal models or in vitro systems. Does this spark an idea for you? You can submit a proposal on resilience and aging through the NIH Parent FOAs . Be sure to keep an eye on this blog and other areas of the NIA website for news on the next RCCN resilience webinar coming up later this summer, which will highlight aging biology and neuroscience perspectives.

In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, please add them below, and best wishes for us all to emerge from this current pandemic wiser and stronger!

I'm delighted to see increased attention paid resilience in older adults; it offers a welcome counter to the all-too common focus on vulnerability in older adults. Much remains to be done to carefully define, measure, and evaluate our conceptions of resilience, but the effort will surely pay off as we learn from those who survive and perhaps even thrive under adverse circumstances. This will surely be even more important as we anticipate the diminished capacity of cognitively impaired individuals to mount a resilient response to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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3 Exercises to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence, According to Research

Emma Seppälä

Small actions can have a big impact on self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive connections.

Everyone struggles to manage their emotions at times. It’s normal to have negative feelings and we can’t expect ourselves – or others – to leave those behind just because we’re at work. But those negative emotions can be detrimental to our relationships, performance, focus, and overall well-being. So it’s worthwhile to hone our emotional intelligence skills that help us handle negative feelings. The author shares three simple approaches to enhance three specific aspects of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive connections. These exercises include: assessment of bodily sensations, cognitive load, and emotional states; strategic breathing exercises; and authentic, intentional acts of kindness and understanding.

Have you ever reacted to a situation at work in a way you weren’t proud of? Or sent an email when you were upset that you later regretted? No matter how successful or accomplished we may be, we all struggle with managing our emotions at times — and suffer the consequences afterward.

Emma Seppälä , PhD, is a faculty member at the Yale School of Management, faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program and bestselling author of SOVEREIGN (2024) and The Happiness Track (2017). She is also science director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education . Follow her work at emmaseppala.com , http://www.iamsov.com or on Instagram . emmaseppala

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Cultivating Resilience: The Interplay of Dread and Hope

Holding on to hope requires resilience and self-compassion..

Posted June 25, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

What Is Resilience?
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In chronic and acute traumatic events, dread and fear can lead to a sense of being frozen and immobilized.
Joyful moments can exist even amid despair. If savored, they can invite hope.
Dread and hope, though seemingly contradictory, can coexist in a complex way that shapes the human experience.

By Evelyn Rappoport, Psy.D.

People often ask me how it is possible to celebrate amid deep suffering and life-altering, traumatic events that shatter any sense of safety or security and leave us in confusion and the unknown.

In the face of our unbearable reality, complex trauma, shock, and uncertainty foreclose any vestige of imagination , creativity , play, and reverie. (Steve Mitchell, 1993). A malignant reality becomes pervasive and normative; the lived present is then filled with the torture of suffering while compromising any felt sense of safety or security. (Lifton, J., 1992). Time has no meaning in trauma, past, present, or future. Fear and dread become shadows that accompany and hold us hostage.

Dread often arises from anticipating negative outcomes, representing fear and anxiety about the unknown or inevitable challenges. It can be paralyzing, casting a shadow over our thoughts and actions.

Both fear and dread involve a sense of apprehension. Fear is a direct response to present and identifiable, whereas dread is more generalized, long-term, intense, and existential.

Dread can be a crippling emotion . It holds us captive in fear as long as we give it power. Both fear and dread can render us immobile, and when we fixate on dread, it consumes our thoughts. In many situations, experiencing dread is a natural part of coping with what's ahead in certain situations. It could be a severe medical diagnosis or the loss of a loved one.

It's fitting and necessary to feel that dread, move through it, and emerge on the other side (Mcfee, 2017).

So, how is it possible to play with dread and hope simultaneously?

Lord Jonathan Sacks' words have given me a perspective that I find comforting and hopeful. They are a balm to ease suffering amid despair.

" Happiness is something you can feel alone, but joy is something you share with others. Happiness is about a lifetime, but joy lives in the moment. Happiness tends to be a cool emotion, but joy makes you want to dance and sing. It's hard to feel happiness amid chaos and uncertainty. But you can still feel joy.” (Sacks, 2010 P.50)

Joyful moments can exist even amid despair. When they appear, if savored, they can invite hope. Dread and hope, though seemingly contradictory, can coexist in a complex dance that shapes human experience. This intricate interplay can be seen in various aspects of life, reflecting the duality of our emotions.

The belief in positive outcomes and the possibility of improvement or success is a source of motivation , strength, and connectivity. Safety and security can be found in our connection to ourselves and other people. After all, we are born to connect. It is our birthright!

Holding onto hope in the presence of dread can be a significant challenge, but it's also a fundamental aspect of resilience and coping with difficult situations. Here are some strategies to help maintain hope: I have found these coping strategies highly effective. Please remember that the more you practice, the easier it becomes to absorb and apply.

Acknowledge your feelings: Recognizing and validating your feelings of dread is essential. Ignoring or suppressing them can make it harder to move forward. Accept that it's okay to feel this way.
Focus on the present moment: Instead of dwelling on the future or past events contributing to your dread, try to focus on the present moment. Mindfulness techniques such as deep breathing or meditation can help anchor you in the here and now.
Seek support: Talking to friends, family, or a therapist about your feelings can provide comfort and perspective. Sharing your worries with others can lighten the burden and remind you that you're not alone.
Find meaning: Look for meaning or purpose in your experiences, even in difficult times, and reflect on what you can learn from the situation or how it can lead to personal growth.
Practice gratitude : Cultivating a sense of appreciation for the positive aspects of your life, no matter how small, can help counteract feelings of dread. Keeping a gratitude journal or taking a few moments each day to appreciate what you have can shift your focus toward the positive.
Focus on what you can control: While worrying about things beyond your control is natural, shift your focus toward what you can influence or change. Taking proactive steps, no matter how small, can help restore a sense of agency and empowerment.
Find sources of inspiration, whether it's through books, music, art, nature, or spiritual practices. Seek out sources that uplift and motivate you. Surrounding yourself with positivity can help counteract feelings of dread.

When dread invites hope to dance, they join together and move as one. Together, they create a third space; ultimately, holding onto hope requires resilience, self-compassion, and a willingness to cultivate optimism despite uncertainty. It's a process that takes time and effort, but it can make a significant difference in navigating challenging or traumatic circumstances.

Evelyn Rappoport, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst , and somatic trauma specialist with private practices in New York and Jerusalem. She is president of the Trauma Special Interest Group of NYSPA.

Gordon, R. M., Groth, T., & Schapiro, S. (2021, March 21). Psychology Today Blog. Sustaining hope in pediatric care during COVID-19: How parents and children can foster coping. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychological-trauma-coping-and-resilience/202103/sustaining-hope-in-pediatric-care-during

McFee, V. A. P. B. V. (2017, July 9). How Do We Dance with Dread? Victoria McGee, M.A. https://stillbeloved.blog/2017/07/09/how-do-we-dance-with-dread/

Mitchell, S A. (1993). Hope and dread in psychoanalysis . Basic Books. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/stephen-a-mitchell/hope-and-dread-in-pychoanalysis/9780465030620/?lens=basic-books

Lifton, R. J. (1986). The Nazi doctors: medical killing and the psychology of genocide. New York, Basic Books. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/robert-jay-lifton/the-nazi-doctors/9780465093397/?lens=basic-books

Sacks J. (2010). Celebrating life: Finding happiness in unexpected places (2022) The Rabbi Sacks Legacy ., Chp3. pg 50 Bloomberg Academic. https://rabbisacks.org/books/celebrating-life-finding-happiness-in-unexpected-places/

The mission of the Hospital, Health & Addiction Workers, Patients and Families working group of the COVID-19 Psychology Task Force is to facilitate coping, resilience in the face of pandemic related stress and trauma

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What's the secret to building resilience in elite sports?

by University of Portsmouth

A study has shed new light on how resilience develops in elite athletes, providing invaluable insights for enhancing both performance and mental health in competitive sports.

Summer 2024 promises to be an epic season for sports—from the Euros and Wimbledon to the Olympics and Paralympics—millions of people are tuning in to watch their sporting stars compete.

With the world watching, elite athletes will experience both mental and physical pressures and challenges, including injuries, performance slumps, and other stressors that negatively affect their well-being.

Resilience is an important factor in combating this, so what can sports psychologists and coaches do to help?

The new research, published in Discover Psychology , has introduced the first comprehensive framework outlining the process of resilience development in athletes over time.

The "A-R-C Development Model" establishes that sporting resilience is a learned, developable, and non-gendered trait, which involves three critical components; A) identifiable antecedents, R) resilience responses, and C) consequences.

Lead author, Dr. Sahen Gupta from the University of Portsmouth's School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science, said, "While elite sport is an incredibly rewarding space to be in, it also creates high-stress environments that are difficult to navigate without causing harm to the athlete's well-being and mental health .

"Resilience doesn't just happen overnight, so what this study has done is help bridge the gap between understanding how elite athletes develop resilience over time, and how to put it into practice."

Following a systematic review of 92 studies on resilience in sport, the research team conducted in-depth life-story interviews with 10 elite athletes from diverse cultural backgrounds (five men and five women).

All participants placed great emphasis on how they had "developed" and "learned" sporting resilience. It can be cultivated through specific strategies and interventions, and practitioners are being encouraged to use individualized approaches rather than a one-size-fits-all method to effectively develop resilience in athletes.

Participant Elaine (an elite female rugby player) said, "You don't get resilience overnight. It's a long-term process of gaining it, and it's a multifaceted approach of how you gain it and I think everybody is different. Different individuals will be motivated or spurred on by different things. It's very dependent on time, place and who it is."

Effective development of sporting resilience also requires considering both personal and environmental factors , with the role of sport psychologists being crucial in creating a positive psychological environment and promoting emotional regulation.

"While it seems counterintuitive, that role can mean supporting athletes with their decision to take some time away from the sport," explained Dr. Gupta.

"Take for instance tennis star Naomi Osaka. She withdrew from the French Open in 2021 for mental health, and it sparked a huge discussion on the importance of well-being in elite sport."

The paper says the ideal environment is one that balances enough controllable difficulties or challenges to build resilience skills through the ARC method. Sport psychologists play an important role in allowing individuals to understand what strategies give them the best results.

Co-author Dr. Paul J. McCarthy from Glasgow Caledonian University, said, "The one-size-fits-all approach is often used in elite sport, especially in team sports where athletes are given a blanket training program to work from.

"Our findings support existing evidence that a more catered approach to develop resilience is the most effective one. The A-R-C Model enables practitioners to chart out an athlete's progress and gives research a frame to investigate further."

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Research and innovation in the national recovery and resilience plans

The European Union's research and innovation (R&I) policy has become central in the attempt to safeguard the EU's technological sovereignty, ensure prosperity, and advance social, economic and environmental sustainability. Various challenges persist nevertheless, from ageing populations and health hazards to (economic) security and the climate crisis. In addition, underinvestment in R&I is a shared concern across Member States, although to varying degrees. To reach the EU's spending target for R&I of 3 % of the EU's annual gross domestic product, the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery instrument and its main spending tool, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), could play a vital role in providing additional funding to Member States. To emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis and benefit from these resources (channelled partly into R&I ecosystems), countries have drawn up individual national recovery and resilience plans (NRRPs). As a funding condition, Member States needed to address at least a significant subset of the European Semester's country-specific recommendations and foster the green and digital transitions, by achieving the milestones and targets linked to the measures agreed in their NRRPs. The RRF is financing over €47 billion worth of R&I measures in the NRRPs, but the focus on R&I investment differs across the plans. In this briefing, six case studies (either investment or reform measures) in R&I from individual recovery plans have been analysed. These measures range from investing in sustainable agriculture (Portugal), to reforming and integrating research, development and innovation organisations in the European Research Area (Romania). Each of the assessed case studies has been linked to one of the six R&I policy guidelines developed by the European Commission. The briefing also touches on other financing opportunities for R&I under the traditional multiannual financial framework. Experts point out that NGEU might contribute to closing the innovation and underinvestment gap between Member States and the EU's 3 % target. The European Parliament supports an ambitious EU-wide R&I policy, and continues to ensure transparency and democratic scrutiny in the implementation of the NGEU recovery instrument.

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New research shows that solar-powered 'resilience hubs' in California could generate up to 8GW of power

by Society for Risk Analysis

Power outages are on the rise nationwide as climate change brings more frequent wildfires, heat waves, and severe weather events. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state of California have both recently established funding to help communities create "resilience hubs" that rely on solar+battery systems to provide emergency power for residents.

A new study in the journal Risk Analysis finds that strategically placing resilience hubs throughout California could generate up to 8 GW of solar energy and lower the state's carbon emissions by 5 million tons per year.

Located in community facilities like schools, community centers, libraries, and places of worship, resilience hubs provide power to residents for critical services such as phone charging, cool air, and powering medical devices. Because resilience hubs are permanent (compared to emergency relocation centers), they can provide year-round services to address the vulnerability of at-risk and disadvantaged populations.

"Demand for resilience hubs remains high," says senior scientist Patrick Murphy, noting that California's Strategic Growth Council awarded 11 grants for resilience hubs in February 2024, "but more than 100 communities requested funding."

In their analysis, Murphy and his colleagues with the group PSE Healthy Energy (PSE) identified nearly 20,000 potential sites for solar+ battery powered resilience hubs. They determined the optimal system design for everyday operation of these sites, and calculated the additional power and equipment needed during different outage scenarios.

Their analysis integrated sociodemographic data to help officials focus potential policy and funding priorities on regions where solar+battery for resilience hubs is difficult or expensive, and where populations are most in need.

Among other findings, the study reports that:

Coastal northern California faces difficult resilience challenges in the rainy and snowy winter season and the Imperial Valley in southern California is challenged when summer heat outpaces rooftop solar input.
Regions and seasons with greater energy needs than their potential solar harvesting will be challenging, requiring either more sites or more roof space to provide resilient energy for hubs.
If grid power is available and critical services like clean, cool air for an emergency shelter are needed, the capacity of the candidate resilience hubs is estimated to be 15.8 million people (about 40% of Californians). While this indicates that plenty of capacity exists, whether it is accessible to the most vulnerable populations bears further study.
Solar+battery power for everyday operations is often financeable and may not require additional funding, especially where sunshine and utility rates are favorable.
Utility rates impact the ability of a community to adopt solar+battery power systems. In places where sunlight is plentiful and utility rates are high, converting to solar+battery power more than pays for itself (as high rates lead to better savings from renewable energy). Regions with lower utility costs, while possibly better for affordability day to day, make solar harder to justify economically.
The total cost of implementing solar+ battery power for everyday use more than pays for itself with saved utility expenses. However, more upfront capital is needed to meet resilience needs (mostly for increased battery energy storage).

"Hubs provide services year-round, not just during disasters," says Murphy. "So they can also help build a community's adaptive capacity—before a disaster hits."

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Public ranks long-term challenges and health determinants as top priorities for new EU

To enhance public health, the post-election European Union (EU) should prioritise long-term challenges such as climate change and the ageing population, as well as factors that influence our health, according to a new report . The findings, derived from a seven-month public debate led by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, highlight a collective call for the EU to play a more significant role in health.

The report, which is based on the public debate commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety ( DG SANTE ), outlines the key priorities and actions desired by citizens and stakeholders from a wide range of sectors and mostly from Europe. The analysis included more than 800 responses in conference polls and a survey, plus comprehensive inputs across three webinars .

The large and participatory initiative allowed to collect public opinion on nine critical health topics: health security; determinants of health; health system transformation; the health workforce; universal health coverage; digital solutions and AI; performance and resilience; long-term challenges like climate change and ageing; and the EU’s global role in health.

The public’s calls for action – including across sectors

Participants called for the European Commission to coordinate across its different policy branches. Collaborating across sectors is considered key to deliver health priorities, making the concepts of ‘ Health in All Policies’ and ‘Health for All Policies ’ important tools for addressing the determinants of health. Interestingly, the topics which garnered the highest consensus in the discussion framework were those least controlled by the health sector alone.

Significant measures should be taken to mitigate the health impacts of environmental risks, including promoting environmental health and supporting health equity through integrated policies. Participants also considered addressing the needs of an ageing population essential, by improving health services and ensuring that health systems are prepared to meet the demands of older adults.

The public opinion suggested several actions to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) across the EU, such as ensuring equal access to comprehensive health care services for all EU citizens and financial protection for all. Other recommendations ranged from establishing a common minimum coverage package and a European health insurance scheme to focusing on underserved groups, improving health literacy, and including mental health in UHC policies.

What role for the EU?

Participants highlighted the importance of EU legal frameworks and instruments in promoting and safeguarding health, such as funding and technical support. They advocated both for new tools and for better implementation and coordination of existing mechanisms.

Aligning educational standards was raised as a key topic in the context of addressing shortages of health workers , regional disparities and managing the demands for new skills. Better addressing health workforce needs and improving their working conditions to mitigate existing gaps was also discussed. There was consensus on the need for EU approaches to health workforce issues, including better coordination of initiatives and pursuit of EU wide policies.

Digital solutions , health security and strengthening the EU’s global voice and leadership were widely discussed but ranked slightly lower. Possible explanations outlined in the report include the “transversal nature of digital solutions, which voters may have perceived as a means to achieving other priorities”. The COVID-19 pandemic and sustained EU action on health security may have elicited some voters to opt for other topics that have received less policy attention in recent years.

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DHS Supply Chain Resilience Center Partners with Department of Transportation and Transport Canada on Supply Chain Disruption Exercise

Attendees at the Department of Transportation and Transport Canada Tabletop Exercise supported by DHS

The U.S.-Canada border, spanning over 5,500 miles including Alaska, holds the title of the longest international border in the world. This vital boundary facilitates billions of dollars in trade between the two nations, which are each other’s largest trading partners. However, in recent years, multiple disruptions to transportation at the U.S.-Canada border have threatened to impede the flow of goods, jeopardizing supply chains. Labor and rail strikes on both sides have further exacerbated these concerns.

To fortify supply chain resilience, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Supply Chain and Resilience Center (SCRC) partnered with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Transport Canada (TC) to conduct a joint supply chain disruption exercise on June 5, 2024, in Niagara, Ontario. This initiative was a critical step in assessing cross-border transportation resilience.

The exercise saw over 150 participants, both in-person and virtual, including partners from American and Canadian government departments and agencies. They faced a simulated severe winter weather event, focusing on disruptions and closures at key rail and road crossings between western New York and Ontario, Canada, specifically the Peace Bridge and Lewiston/Queenston Bridge. Daily, $2 billion in goods and services crosses the entire U.S.-Canada border. The Niagara region used for the exercise is the second busiest area of trade and transit, with $70 billion in goods crossing annually that would essentially halt if the area’s bridges were closed.

With aligned interests, the SCRC collaborated with DOT and TC to design and plan the exercise, supported throughout by an Exercise Facilitator provided by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Intermodal Security Training. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Infrastructure Security Division Chief Meteorologist, Sunny Wescott, played a pivotal role, demonstrating historical impacts of precipitation, winds, and icing on operations and discussing future mitigation strategies as weather systems grow more extreme. Wescott emphasized the necessity of these exercises to identify areas for improvements and foster collaboration ahead of potential disruptions.

The exercise was conducted under the U.S.-Canada Emergency Management Consultative Group framework, co-chaired by DHS with the Department of State and Canadian partners. The constructive dialogue underscored the value of collaboration among federal, Canadian, state/provincial, and private sector partners. Active participation by the DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CISA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and TSA reflects the deep strategic and operational expertise that DHS brings to the table in supply chain and infrastructure resilience. DHS Undersecretary for Policy, Robert Silvers, voiced strong support, noting that the exercise identified key vulnerabilities and implemented practices to enhance supply chain security.

The official After-Action Review, set to be released in August 2024, will detail the strengths and areas of improvement observed during the exercise. The insights gained will drive further discussions and collaborations between the two countries, promoting best practices and implementing meaningful changes to address shared concerns.

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Exploring Two Decades of Research in Community Resilience: A Content Analysis Across the International Literature

Yangyang fan.

1 Department of Public Administration, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

Xiaojun Lyu

Introduction.

Community resilience (CR) has gradually become a hot topic in uncertain times, especially in the last five years. The current study presents a systematic review based on content analysis to present a knowledge graph of CR research over the last 20 years.

We use an approach of Leximancer to conduct the content analysis to explore the intellectual foundations, research context, topics, and methods of CR literature based on 583 published studies.

The results show that framework research of CR is a hot topic throughout the last 20 years. In the first stage (from 2001 to 2015), CR connected with the themes of “framework, disaster, change, and model”. Comparatively, in the second stage (from 2016 to 2020), the themes of “social capital, capacity, and framework” are more salient connecting with CR. Additionally, the study detected that the key issues varied across countries. Specifically, research in the US focused on the social support dynamic, while in Australia, recovery from the disaster was the predominant theme. Furthermore, in the UK, studies mostly explore resilience issues in the background related to flooding.

Our findings provide a comprehensive picture of CR research covering the last 20 years and put forward thoughts and recommendations for future resilience studies considering 1) obstacles within daily life, 2) resilience set within organizational perspectives, and 3) cultural context.

Over the last several decades, resilience research has gradually become a hot topic in many disciplines, including developmental psychology, 1 , 2 mental health, 3 management, 4 and environmental research. 5 Over the last 20 years, resilience has developed from the individual level to expand into the domains of community, city, and environment. 6 , 7

Given the increasing interest in community resilience (CR) in recent years, a systematic review of CR is essential, and provides an empirical guideline for future research. 8 , 9 To our knowledge, there are no systematic reviews on the topic of CR based on content analysis of the literature. Norris et al drew upon the literature in several disciplines and presented CR as a metaphor, theory, set of capacities, and strategy for disaster readiness, but without systematic review for cross-country comparison. 9 Kirmayer et al discussed the concepts, models, metaphors, and measures of CR within the context of Aboriginal communities but neglected to use empirical methods of a systematic review. 3 Follow-up studies focused on exploring CR models and dimensions based on specific countries or communities under different kinds of natural disasters or risk events. 10 , 11 Recently, Koliou et al conducted a literature review of CR research mainly focusing on natural hazards without a systematic literature review process. 12 As the field has grown rapidly in recent years, it is essential to conduct a systematic review of CR to uncover the knowledge graph based on content analysis.

This research presents a comprehensive review of CR literature to explore the intellectual foundations, research context, topics, and methodological approach of the literature on CR. In this study, we want to reply to these questions:

What is the key focus of the CR research in the past 20 years?
What are the differences between community resilience research in different countries?
How will relevant research be better carried out in the future about CR?

The paper is organized as follows: First we will review Resilience and CR as illustrated in the previous literature spanning diverse disciplines. Next, we conducted a content analysis to respond to the above questions with the help of Leximancer. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical framework for CR and share some ideas about the future direction for CR research. This article provides a panoramic description of interdisciplinary CR research and makes a novel contribution to the resilience studies at the community level, but through an international comparative lens.

A Review of Resilience

Resilience is best explained by a famous aphorism: “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger” (p.201), which is expressed by Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols. 13 Also, it is vividly described by Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, “It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change” (p26). 14 Resilience is most commonly viewed as a positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity. 3 As an important concept both in natural science and social science, the research about resilience has grown rapidly in many subjects (developmental psychology, management, health, environment) from the micro-level to the macro-level. Resilience is not a process that is isolated from other social contexts or systems. On the contrary, it is a complicated process that is intertwined with resources and multiple influences of internal and external factors. 7

Although the concept of resilience in the previous research has something in common, it still has different meanings across-subjects. Resilience in environmental management (ecological systems) literature has a long history, which defines resilience as the ecosystem’s capacity for absorbing and recovering under the context of external shocks. Environmental corporate social responsibility, environmental well-being, resilient infrastructure, social capital and social learning theory were strengthened as theoretical backgrounds in environmental management research. 15 From the perspective of social science, Keck and Sakdapolrak described resilience as the capacities or abilities of social entities to absorb, cope with and adjust to various social threats and environmental disasters. 16 Additionally, in psychology and mental health, resilience seems like a feature of individuals facing adversity who have positive developmental outcomes. 3 Social resilience theory and empowerment theory were strengthened as theoretical backgrounds in psychology research. 7 , 8 To some extent, the ideas from ecosystems and physiological systems may be used to understand sociological or psychological processes. 3 Overall, the common understanding of resilience is that it relates to the ability to provide positive outcomes when facing external adversity.

Resilience at the different levels has developed in different stages. The individual-level research of resilience has significantly attracted the interest of mental health and developmental psychology, while ecosystem resilience has always been a research hotspot around the world. 1 , 17 However, empirical research on CR is still in the infancy stage. From a community systems perspective, the community is like a bridge connecting micro-level (individuals and family) and macro-level (social system or ecology). If a resilient community can promote the development of the whole social ecosystem, then it is essential to make clear the research progress of CR to continue to help social systems survive through healthy individuals and families.

A Review of Community Resilience

Community refers to a social unit (a group of people living in the same place) with commonality, such as values, norms, customs, religion, or identity. 18 Resilience at the community level has gained more attention in the past 20 years. The community’s resilience is not defined by the sum of individual member resilience. 19–21 Resilience at the community level is interrelated with resilience at the individual, household, and organizational levels. 7 Resilience in the community system itself involves the adjustments and adoption of organizations, families, and individuals within the community, and it also interacts with the whole community. 3 Additionally, resilience at the community level has attracted much interest in the fields of psychology, public administration, crisis management, and environmental science.

For the definition of CR, there is much research that provides a clear description of it from different perspectives. From a general aspect, the Presidential Policy Directive defines CR as the ability to prepare and adapt to changing conditions, able to withstand disturbances and quickly recover from them. 22 From a theoretical perspective, Brown and Kulig defined CR as the community members’ ability to engage in community affairs or projects despite structures and events that obstruct such projects. 21 From a social sustainability perspective, Magis defined CR as the ability of community members to try to thrive in the development and engagement of community resources under an uncertain, unpredictable, changing, and surprising context. 23 From the perspective of the health system, Bhandari and Alonge defined CR as a process of linking a set of network adaptability (resources with dynamic attributes) at the individual or community level with the function of the health system at the community level after a health shock and the positive trajectory of adaptation. 24 Based on diverse perspectives, we can conclude that CR is a proactive process, not a passive response. 25 , 26

For the framework and dimension of CR, many efforts have been done in the previous research. Norris et al explored a framework from four adaptive capacities: community competence, social capital, information and communication, and economic development. 9 Based on the literature review and focus group discussion, Magis developed Community Resilience Self-Assessment from eight dimensions: community resources, resources development, resources engagement, impact, equity, strategic action, collective action, and active agents. 23 From both the social-ecological systems and psychology of development and mental health perspectives, Berkes and Ross explored an integrated approach for future research of CR. 7 Based on the previous CART (Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit) survey instrument, Pfefferbaum et al developed a five-factor model of CR: connection and caring, resources, transformative potential, disaster management, and information and communication. 27 Although various CR frameworks or dimensions were explored in the previous research, CR itself is difficult to be measured directly.

However, there is still a long way to go for the CR research. The current theoretical models of CR have only illustrated a series of factors promoting the resilience of the community rather than the models of itself. 28 Relatively few instruments are available to build and conducive to measure CR, as some researchers maintain that measurements of CR should be based on specific communities and scenarios. 3 More importantly, much of the past research about focused on exploring the measurement and its framework or dimensions, with few studies exploring the consequence of CR. 27 , 29 These puzzles can only be carried out on the basis of a systematic review of the existing literature. By quantifying and then theorizing a unified academic framework, we can better promote the development of CR to allow for meaningful research that will advance practice and theory.

Selection of the CR-Based Literature

This study included articles related to CR that were published from January 2001 to September 2020 from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, as both databases can provide advanced search functions to allow us to restrict the search terms. Due to the diversity of research on CR, we only included papers that put community resilience at the core of the research. We restricted the search limitations as follows: (1) “community resilience” or “resilient community” was included in the title; (2) only English articles were included; (3) journal articles specifically included CR as a concept; (4) CR was the main theme or a dominant focus throughout the abstract. There are 515 research articles in the Scopus database and 436 studies in the WOS database. After deleting the duplicate articles from both databases, 764 articles were downloaded into the Endnote software with the abstract included for each article. Based on the title and abstract, 127 articles and 54 articles were excluded in the first and second round of exclusion separately, there are 583 articles included at the final stage ( Figure 1 ). Then, we imported the title and abstract of each article into an Excel document to analyze using Leximancer.

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Systematic literature review process.

Content Analysis in Leximancer

Leximancer (ver. 4.5) is a textual data analysis software for text mining and artificial learning. 30 Leximancer can identify families of terms based on word frequency and co-occurrence data in the text. It is not only a simple text analysis software but also a way to provide novel quantitative text information and realize visualization. As a software system for conceptual analysis of text data in a language-independent manner, it automatically analyzes text documents to identify high-level concepts in text documents and provide required key ideas and actionable insights through a powerful interactive visualization and data export system. Compared with the standard content analysis, Leximancer can automatically identify the main concepts among a set of texts and coding those concepts in a visual map.

Leximancer treated the high-frequency words in the texts as concepts. The facility for interactive concept-mapping in Leximancer assisted our researchers in understanding the textual dataset by providing an overview of the conceptual structure. 31 The software clustered the concepts based on connections, and similar concepts or high correlation of words were settled together in close proximity. Additionally, Leximancer grouped concept clusters by theme circles, and each circle was named based on the most prominent dot in that theme cluster (researchers renamed themes according to the concepts in that theme circle). Based on the cluster map and the rank-ordered concept lists, we explored the relationships of those concepts to better understand the semantic structure of the data.

In this study, there were enough studies (583 articles) on CR to meet the conditions for text analysis based on Leximancer. To better understand the development of this topic, we divided the dataset into two stages: the first stage is from 2001 to 2015 (initial 15 years, less than 50 articles in each year), and the second stage is from 2016 to 2020 (recent five years) with more than 50 articles in each year. The analysis of data from the past five years (2016–2020) will help us better understand developmental trends of CR. Additionally, we analyzed the text based on the country mentioned in the titles and abstracts, along with the first author’s country.

Before analyzing the data, the non-lexical and weak semantic information was excluded according to the standard exclusion words in Leximancer (such as the words “of”, “and”, and “not”). The general terms that were applied frequently in the abstracts were also removed because of the meaninglessness to the concept maps (such as “article”, “paper”, “during”, “study”, and “research”). Additionally, the singular and plural of words were merged into plural forms (for example: “community” and ‘communities’, “disaster” and “disasters”). Additionally, to keep the completeness of the concept map, we set the visible concepts into 100% by showing all the concepts in the map, and the theme size is set to 50%. Based on the cluster map (the size and connection between concepts) and the rank-ordered concept lists, we explored the relationships of those concepts and better understood the semantic structure of the data.

Text Mining Analysis Among All Data

An initial overall (2001–2020) analysis was conducted automatically with titles and abstracts of all 583 articles. Eight themes (Community, resilience, disaster, social capital, impact, framework, rural, effect) including 56 concepts were shown in the overall map. Based on the analysis, we numbered the themes in rank order from 1 to 8, with the “community” and “resilience”, the focusing topic in this article, ranked top two, and “effect”, the least prominent theme, ranked 8. It should be noted that the size of the theme decided the prominence of the ranking theme: the larger the dot, the more prominent the theme.

Figure 2 shows the maps of concepts and themes from the overall dataset. From this 3D diagram, we can explore the connection and relationship between the 56 concepts. As can be seen in this overall map, social capital (ranked 4) is the most central concept, which means it is a hot topic that is related to the research about CR. When we click the concept of social or capital on the map in Leximancer, it shows that almost all concepts are connected with these terms. We also know that during the last 20 years, CR research has been mainly connected with disaster (ranked 3). In these 583 articles, the theme hit 1030 times about the concept of disaster, which means resilience research at the community level is mostly under the condition of disaster.

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Overall map in Leximancer (N=583 articles published between 2001 and 2020).

Figure 2 also shows the main topic of CR in the last 20 years. The themes of “impact” (ranked 5), “framework” (ranked 6), and “effect” (ranked 8) clearly show the main topic is about that the framework of CR and the impact and effect. Additionally, the concept of “framework” has to be counted 218 times in those 583 articles’ title and abstract, with “impact” and effect were counted 211 and 109, respectively. At last, based on this map, after reading the sentences about the concepts in the theme of “rural”, it is clear to know that research in CR is mostly using the qualitative method under the event or risk. The theme of rural (ranked 7) including four concepts, which are rural (120 hit times), urban (112 hit times), individual (106 hit times), and population (69 hit times).

Based on the content analysis in overall (2001–2020) database, we explored the intellectual foundations, research context, topics, and methods of CR literature. Figure 3 summarizes CR in the current literature.

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An overview of community resilience research in the literature.

Text Mining Analysis Between 2001 to 2015 Years

After the pre-processing on the grounded analysis by Leximancer, we then run the content analysis based on the articles published in the initial 15 years. As shown in Figure 4 , 6 themes (community, resilience, framework, disaster, change, and model) including 38 concepts were shown in the map, which illustrate the concept model and framework about the CR in the context of disaster and change. As we can see in Figure 4 , community and resilience were still the most prominent, followed by themes of the framework. Additionally, the theme of “framework” is the most central concept, and it is connected with all the other 37 concepts in the map, which means it is a crucial topic that related to the research about CR between 2001 and 2015. Compared with the initial overall (2001–2020) analysis, the themes of “change” and “model” appeared in the initial 15 years, with the concept of “change” appeared 77 times and “model” appeared 54 times.

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Theme and concept map of articles published from 2001 to 2015 (N=185 articles).

Text Mining Analysis Between 2016 to 2020 Years

Figure 5 presents seven themes (order ranking) including 44 concepts for the past five years (2016–2020). The most prominent theme is resilience, with its most pivotal concept connected to “risk” and “impacts”. Same as the first two maps, the community is the second most prominent theme, with its most key concept “community” connected to “support”, “system”, “process”, “approach”, “role”, and “case” around it. The third most prominent (social capital) linked the theme of community and resilience, which means social capital is a critical element in the research about CR.

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Theme and concept map of articles published from 2016 to 2020 (N=398 articles).

The next most prominent theme is “framework” (ranked 4), and it is also one of the most prominent themes in the overall analysis (ranked 6) and the map of initial 15 years (ranked 3), which means the framework research of CR is a hot topic throughout the past 20 years. The theme of capacity (ranked 5) is the most central concept connecting all the concepts in this map (after clicking the concept of capacity). The last three themes are events (ranked 6), individual (ranked 7), and government (ranked 8), with the concept of them are counted 76, 71, and 56 times respectively. After reviewing the abstract of those articles published in the last five years, we can clearly understand that almost most of the research about CR was based on the natural disasters or risk events. Additionally, people in the community and the government are the two main parts when a disaster is happening.

The Analysis Across Country-Specific CR Literature

In order to know the themes and concepts in the research site’s host, we divided those 583 journal articles by country, and the top three countries with more than 50 research articles output were: USA (202 papers), Australia (54 papers), and UK (52). Furthermore, the other 65 countries, including 275 articles, were classified as one unit for analysis.

The top five themes generated from the research in the United States included “community” (893 hit times, concepts such as model, results, process, vulnerability, and different); “resilience” (889 hit times, concepts also including natural, framework, systems, planning, challenges, and key); “disaster” (389 hit times, concepts also including recovery, response, infrastructure, risk, events, and management); “change” (318 hit times, concepts also including development, local, climate, approach, public, and important); and “social” (297 hit times, concepts also including social, health, hazards, capacity, resources, and support). The text mining analysis of the Australia CR research included the top five themes of “community” (254 hit times, concepts also including automated concepts of resilience, development, approach, framework, events, support, systems, and level); “disaster” (117 hit times, concepts including disaster, management, natural, response, risk, emergency, and reduction), “change” (90 hit times, concepts including change, local, climate, need, capacity, impacts and important), “social” (81 hit times, concepts also including public, policy, strategies, health, government, and responsibility); and “recovery” (29 hit times, concepts such as recovery, and related). The top five themes generated from the research in the United Kingdom included “community” (253 hit times, including automated concepts of community, resilience, local, empowerment, change, different, interviews, findings, and implications); “social” (111 hit times of social, framework, capital, building, approach, data, support, and cultural); “flood” (72 hit times of flood, risk, UK, policy, knowledge, management, and coastal); “processes” (57 hit times of processes, challenges, case, level, and organic); and “rural” (44 hit times, concepts also including role, and activities). From the literature in the other 65 countries, the top five themes included “resilience” (1383 hit times), “community” (1381 hit times), “social” (706 hit times), “disaster” (518 hit times), and “model” (146 hit times) (See Supplementary Table 1 ). All the five themes appeared on the map of three main countries, which means the CR research in those 65 countries followed the leading research in the three main countries (See Supplementary Table 1 ).

Discussion and Future Research Directions

Based on the 583 research articles about the CR from Web of Science and Scopus, concept maps were presented through Leximancer. The concept map based on the years of development stages and the CR research from specific-country were analyzed in our study. As presented in the results, there are some common research topics and concepts in those two perspective analyses. More importantly, there are also many different themes and concepts across two stages and cross-countries.

From the number of publications by year, the research of CR has proliferated after 2015, so we divided these 20 years of research of CR into two stages. It is hard to compare the results of the content analysis in the initial 15 years (2001–2015) and the last five years (2016–2020) with all data separately. However, the concepts and themes show much difference between the initial 15 years and the recent five years of research on CR from the concept maps. As for the initial 15 years, research on CR mainly illustrated the concept model and framework of community resilience, 10 and it also showed how to respond to change through community resilience when suffering a disaster or risk. 32 In the past five years, the framework of CR has still attracted attention from scholars. 33 More importantly, it emphasized the correlation between community resilience and social capital, and it also strengthens the capacity of individuals and governments when facing events and disasters. 34 , 35 Based on the intellectual foundations, research context, topics, and methods of CR research showing in our content analysis, follow-up research still has many directions worth exploring.

Our study detected that the themes and concepts of CR varied across countries. CR research in America has never been interrupted since 2001, and it has snowballed in the past five years. In the concept map of America, disaster is the third most prominent theme of CR research. Much research about resilience is related to the disaster, and it is related to natural and climate disasters in rural countries. 36 , 37 As the most mature area of CR research, many researchers in America have already explored the framework, antecedent and consequent under the risk events. 38 , 39 Research on CR in Australia appeared in 2008 and has developed rapidly in the past five years. 40 Similar to the theme of research in the United States, disaster is a hot topic in the research of CR in Australia (the second most prominent theme on the map). Literature in both America and Australia emphasized the capacity and management under the risk events. 41 , 42 CR in the UK is generally considered as a process. 43 Compared with the other countries, disaster in the UK was specific to flooding, meaning most CR research under disasters in the UK was focused on flooding. 44–46 Except for New Zealand (20 papers), the literature of CR in each of the other 64 countries was less than 15, with four papers on average. From the concepts in the map, “resilience” and “community” are the two most prominent themes with a series of concepts were included. There is a greater similarity with the three major countries in CR research.

There are a few limitations to this study. First, only articles published in the English language were selected. The reason is that most articles focus on CR taking place in English, and it is hard to include all related studies in other languages. However, we cannot deny that some valuable literature was published in non-English journals. Second, to ensure that all papers are related to CR, only articles with CR in the article title were selected, which helps us target the related papers. On the other hand, it also neglects some articles that illustrated the CR in the main text. Third, these 20 years of CR research were divided into two stages according to the publication amount without a better objective basis. After visualizing the title and abstract of papers about CR published in the last 20 years, most studies are review articles or case studies. It is clear that research on CR still has more work to be done in the following years. Therefore, based on the results obtained by Leximancer, we try to make recommendations and outlooks for future research on CR.

Community Resilience in Day-to-Day Lives

Most research focused on CR under or after the circumstances of disaster or risk events. 6 It is also essential to focus on a community’s resilience for small shocks in day-to-day lives. Many researchers have emphasized the essential of “bounce back” after disaster or risk events to evaluate how resilient a community is and what is a critical factor of the resilience framework. 7 , 15 However, CR should not only be able to “bounce back” after shocks and stressors but also allow individuals or organizations in the community to respond proactively to minor stressors and risk events in their daily life. 48 As a process, CR can only play its role in a crisis if it is continuously practiced and developed in daily life. 49 Therefore, considering the unpredictability and complexities of daily life should be an essential part of future CR research.

Community Resilience in Organizational Perspective

A community can be treated as a dynamic organization. 3 Connecting CR and organizational resilience would be meaningful for the development of CR research. Compared with the CR research, resilience in organizational and management studies has developed more maturely. Organizational resilience refers to the organizations have the capacity of the strategic awareness and operational management to deal with unexpected risk events and disruptions in advance. 50 More importantly, research on organizational resilience not only handles the current crisis but also tries to achieve long-term success. 51 Similar to organizational resilience, CR should not only be able to “bounce back” but also needs to be further developed for the community context. Additionally, in recent years, there has been much research on the theory of organizational resilience. 52 More importantly, there is much organizational resilience research that has explored the antecedents and consequences from a quantitative perspective. 52 , 53 So, it will be an important view for future research on resilience at the community level when dealing with risk events based on the capacity of resilience from an organizational perspective.

Community Resilience Under the Different Cultural Contexts

Cross-country comparison for CR research is essential for developing the theory and framework of future research in CR. CR research is still at the primary stage based on the results of content analysis. As we presented in the results, most CR research focused on the specific risk event in one country (concepts such as area, local, context). However, under the different cultural contexts, people have different perceptions of the community. For example, the community in the West involves both relational and regional communities. However, the community in China generally emphasizes the regional community. 47 Under the different perceptions of community, CR in different countries has different contextual meanings. It is essential to conduct the CR research in regions based on a specific cultural context, but it is still meaningful to conduct the research from a comparative perspective to promote CR research.

This article presents a content analysis study using Leximancer to track the history of CR research collected on the Web of Science and Scopus database across diverse disciplines. A content analysis was conducted for the title and abstract of 583 articles by Leximancer for an overall review of research spanning 20 years. The results show that framework research of CR is a hot topic throughout the past 20 years. The main topics of the first stage (from 2001 to 2015) illustrate the concept model and framework of the CR in the context of disaster and change. Comparatively, in the second stage (from 2016 to 2020), social capital and capacity are more saliently connected with CR. Additionally, the study detected that the key issues varied across countries. Specifically, research in the US focused on the social support dynamic, while in Australia, recovery from disaster was more prominent. However, CR research from the UK focused more on resilience issues relating to floods. Overall, our findings provide a comprehensive picture of CR research covering the last 20 years and put forward thoughts and recommendations for future resilience studies considering (1) obstacles within daily life, (2) resilience set within organizational perspectives, and (3) cultural context.

Data Sharing Statement

All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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