Resilience has been defined by the American Psychological Association as
“the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma,
tragedy, threats or even significant sources of threat” (Southwick and
Charney, 2012). However, is it unclear what is meant by ‘adapting well’.
A paper that examined the definitions of resilience claimed that no
operationalised definition truly exists, but the central question
surrounding resilience concerns how some people are able to withstand
adversity without developing adverse physical or mental health outcomes
(Herman et al, 2011). Factors that influence resiliency fall under three
categories; individual, context and life events (Lindstrom & Eriksson,
2010). Examples of individual factors include genetics, age and life
experience. The context refers to social class, support and culture.
Whereas life events concern the quantity and quality of such events,
examples surrounding the controllability, desirability, magnitude etc.
Some researchers have adopted a salutogenic approach, meaning that they
focus on the factors that assist in one’s individual level of
resilience. One key factor within this approach is a ‘sense of
coherence’, which refers to the capability to organise the resources and
social context of one’s life and manage themselves, and that the demands
that one faces are meaningful and comprehensible (Allardt et al., 1980;
Antonovsky, 1987). It has been argued that people with a strong sense of
coherence are cognitively and emotionally more capable of managing
problems and stressors and are thus more resilient to negative physical
and mental health outcomes (Pallant and Lae, 2002). Low SOC has been found to be a significant predictor of depression (Sairenchi et al, 2011) and anxiety traits (Hart, Hittner and Paras, 1991). Successful interventions to increase SOC surround a focus on the individual, such as person-centred therapy (von Humboldt and Leal, 2013) or a pycho-drama intervention (using role play, imagination, writing, music, drawing etc. to investigate something of importance to an individual) (Kähönen et al, 2012).
There is an abundance of research highlighting the relationship between
resilience and health, with resilience moderating the relationship
between stress with trait anxiety and depressive symptoms (Gloria &
Steinhardt, 2014). Higher levels of resilience have also been associated
with reduced symptoms of depression subsequently influencing both mental
and physical health, along with reduced chronic pain (Mehta et al.,
2008; Schure, Odden & Goins, 2013). It is argued that people with
greater resilience view life stressors as challenges and employ
strategies to actively cope with them (Bonanno et al., 2015).
Comprehensive training programmes have been developed to specifically
target building resilience, including stress inoculation training
(Meichenbaum & Deffenbacher, 1988), hardiness training (Maddi, 2008),
the Psychoeducational Resilience Training Programme (Steinhardt &
Dolbier, 2008), and the military’s Comprehensive Solider Fitness
Programme (Cornum, Matthews & Seligman, 2011). There is a clear interest in resilience building, however many of these programmes lack
supporting evidence regarding their efficacy (Southwick et a., 2015).
Researchers have also argued that resilience training does not differ
substantially from other forms of psychological training, and the impact
of such training depends on the chosen outcome measures and training
setting (Forbes & Fikretoglu, 2018).
Resilience-focused research in the 1980s predominantly concerned the
ability to bounce back from adversity, known as recovery as resilience
(Garmezy, 1991). Whereas resilience-building techniques based off the
principles of positive psychology are now being recognised as a viable
strategy to prevent ill-health (Davydov et al., 2010). An example of
which focuses on optimism (Seligman, 2007), proving to be effective in
improving wellbeing and coping styles (Khosla & Hangal, 2004; Scheier
& Carver, 1992). The Penn Resilience Programme (PRP) and PERMA
workshops have been developed to build resilience, wellbeing and
optimism. These programmes have been applied to children, proving
beneficial in reducing mental health symptoms among 11- to 12-year-olds
(Gillham et a., 2006), as well as preventing symptoms of depression in
adolescents (Cutuli et al., 2007), and increasing resilience and
positive emotion among medical students (Peng et al., 2014).