Predictors of individual,community and national resiliencies of Israeli Jews and Arabs

The contribution of individual characteristics to predicting individual, community and national resilience of Israeli Jews and Arabs was investigated. Psychological resilience refers to people's assessment of their ability to withstand negative psychological consequences of major afflictions, and to keep functioning despite these adversities. The following hypotheses were examined: 1. The Jewish sample would score higher than the Arab sample on indices of individual, community and national resilience. 2. Men of both groups would score higher compared with women on these resilience indices. 3. Exposure to terror and fear of upcoming war would negatively predict the resilience of both groups. 4. Higher level of religiosity, right wing political attitudes, higher income, higher education, older age and higher sense of coherence will positively predict the investigated resiliencies. The random sample included 1100 Jews and 350 Arabs who participated in an internet survey. Resilience was defined in this study as the balance of individual, community and national strength (protective factors) to vulnerability (risk factors). The results supported the first three hypotheses whereas the fourth hypothesis was supported only for the Jewish sample. The present study indicated that some predictors had universal effect on resilience, whereas others seemed to be culture specific predictors.     

Risk and protective factors for urban African-American youth

The present study investigated risk and resilience processes in a sample of urban African-American youth. Risk and protective factors were assessed across ecological levels including individual, family and community. Both externalizing and internalizing symptomatology were included as measures of child adjustment. Youth and parental reports as well as various methods, such as the Experience Sampling Method, were used to capture the daily experiences of the adolescents from different perspectives. Poverty, hassles, and exposure to violence predicted higher rates of externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Individual and family protective variables emerged as powerful sources of resilience. An inner sense of confidence and helpful family support were associated with reductions in the deleterious effects of community poverty. Two main patterns, protective-stabilizing and overwhelming-risk, seemed to characterize most of the risk by protective factor interactions. The present findings are important for understanding the complex experiences of urban youth and furthering the literature on sources of risk and protection for African-Americans.     

Resilience Variables and Posttraumatic Symptoms Among Maltreated Youth

Child maltreatment is associated with an array of social, behavioral, neurobiological, and developmental problems that can last for many years. A key outcome of child maltreatment includes posttraumatic stress symptoms such as reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Considerable research has focused on risk factors for posttraumatic symptoms in maltreated youth, but less so on possible protective factors such as resilience. This study examined several resilience variables (sense of mastery, sense of relatedness, emotional reactivity) in an ethnically diverse sample of maltreated adolescents with posttraumatic symptoms. Key aspects of resilience that predicted posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms included sense of mastery (for fewer symptoms) and emotional reactivity (for more symptoms). In particular, optimism, self-efficacy, and adaptability were inversely related to PTSD symptoms. In addition, emotional reactivity moderated a relationship between resilience resource scores and PTSD symptoms. The findings appeared to apply most to sexually maltreated youth. The results preliminarily demonstrate the importance of considering resilience-based variables during clinical processes for maltreated youth.     

大学生社会支持对乐观倾向的影响:心理弹性与心理一致感的中介作用

研究旨在了解大学生社会支持、乐观倾向、心理弹性和心理一致感的基本情况及其相互关系,探讨心理弹性和心理一致感在社会支持与乐观倾向之间的中介作用,并对大学生乐观倾向的影响机制进行深入分析。研究使用大学生社会支持量表、心理一致感量表、心理弹性量表和乐观倾向量表对上海市某高校2979名大学生进行调查。研究结果表明:(1)大学生社会支持、心理弹性与心理一致感和乐观倾向的总体状况良好,处于正向积极水平。社会支持、心理弹性与心理一致感和乐观倾向均存在显著的性别差异,女生情况好于男生。(2)大学生乐观倾向与社会支持、心理弹性、心理一致感之间均存在显著正相关(r=.31-.50)。(3)社会支持对乐观倾向有直接预测作用,心理弹性和心理一致感的中介效应显著,模型拟合程度良好(χ2/df=36.80,p.001,NFI=.98,CFI=.98,IFI=.98)。研究为揭示社会支持与乐观倾向背后可能的原因与作用机制提供了理论支持。     

Postwar Recovery to Stress Symptoms Ratio as a Measure of Resilience,Individual Characteristics,Sense of Danger,and Age

This study maintains that postwar resilience should be defined by the proportion of recovery from war adversity and level of postwar symptoms. We hypothesize first that four resilience-promoting factors will predict this measure of resilience. Second, these associations will be mediated by sense of postwar danger. Third, war-afflicted older people will be comparable to younger people on these variables. The sample included 829 Israeli adults who experienced the 2006 second Lebanon war. Results that have generally supported these hypotheses have been discussed in terms of the definition of resilience, the role of sense of danger in postwar adjustment, and the resilience of older people to war.     

Personal and communal resilience in communities exposed to missile attacks: Does intensity of exposure matter?

Based on the salutogenic model, this study aimed to examine the role of personal and communal resiliency in reducing individuals’ psychological distress when facing intensive missile attacks. We examined the relationships between these resources and psychological distress in communities which were exposed to different intensities of attacks. Data was gathered via anonymous self-report questionnaires from 843 adults during the period from one week to one month after intensive attacks in southern Israel. Questionnaires included demographic data as well as sense of coherence (SOC), community resiliency and psychological distress. Differences in levels of resiliency and distress were found among the groups with different ‘exposure levels’. Moreover, only personal resilience SOC explained psychological distress in the entire population, while community resiliency had no effect. Results are discussed on the basis of the salutogenic model with implications for developments of interventions with populations who are exposed to differing intensities of missile attacks.     

Youth Exposed to Violence: Stability, Co-occurrence, and Context

With considerable literature establishing how separate types of violence disrupt the lives of children, there is emerging interest in examining violence across multiple interpersonal domains. This article examines four commonly occurring and frequently researched domains of violence exposure: marital physical aggression, mother-to-youth aggression, father-to-youth aggression, and community violence. A community-based sample of 103 parents and youth provided three waves of data at annual intervals beginning when the youth were aged 9–10. We explored stability of exposure, co-occurrence across different types of violence exposure, and associations with co-occurring risk factors. Approximately 30–45% of youth reported intermittent exposure over the 3 years. In addition to overlap among types of violence exposure within the family, we found overlap between parent-to-youth aggression and community violence, an association that was exacerbated in families where fathers reported high levels of global distress symptoms. Mother-to-youth, father-to-youth, and community violence related to youth behavior problems beyond the contextual risk factors of low income, stressful life events, and parents’ global distress symptoms. These results highlight the importance of examining violence longitudinally, across multiple types, and with attention to contextual factors.     

Individual and Community Resilience Factors Among Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Queer and Questioning Youth and Adults in Israel

Drawing on resilience theories, this study examined the individual and community factors of Israeli lesbians, gays, bisexuals, queers, and questioning (LGBQs) that contribute to positive mental health and the degree to which individual and community protective factors mitigate the adverse effect of risk factors for poor mental health. Differences in resilience factors between LGBQ youth and adults were explored. Data were collected on 890 LGBQ youth and adults. Findings emphasize the role of community‐level resilience factors in the lives of LGBQs, and that these support systems differ slightly between the two age groups. Among youth, family support was both a strong predictor for well‐being and a protective factor for mental distress. Although family support was found as a resilience factor among adults as well, other community‐level factors (friends’ support, LGBT connectedness and having steady partner) were found as protective factors for poorer mental health. These findings suggest for efforts on fostering familial support for LGBQ youth and a multi‐level system that offers support at the familial, peer, relationship and community levels for both LGBQ youth and adults.     

Understanding Stability and Change in Psychological Distress and Sense of Coherence: A Four‐Year Prospective Study1

Concerns have been raised repeatedly regarding the temporal stability of sense of coherence measures and their unusually strong correlations with psychological distress measures. To examine these two issues prospectively in a general population sample, we used a structural equation model (SEM) that hypothesizes a stable and a time‐varying component for the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), a measure of sense of coherence, and a distress scale. The stable component underlying distress levels was correlated strongly with the stable component of the OLQ. These findings suggest that the status of sense of coherence as a stable protective factor for health that is independent of known risk factors is not well served by the OLQ.     

The Weaving Healthy Families program: Promoting parenting practices,family resilience,and communal mastery

Parenting quality, family resilience, and community resilience and support have been found to be primary protective factors for the disproportionate burden of anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), depression, and suicide that US Indigenous youth and adults tend to experience. The purpose of this research study was to examine pilot results for outcomes related to relational factors for Indigenous family members who participated in the Weaving Healthy Families (WHF) program (translated to Chukka Auchaffi’ Natana, in the Choctaw tribal language), a culturally grounded and empirically informed program geared toward promoting wellness, family resilience, parenting practices, and community resilience while also preventing SUD and violence. This nonrandomized pre-experimental pilot intervention followed a longitudinal design, which included pre-test, a post-test, and a 6-, 9-, and 12-month post-intervention follow-up surveys. Repeated-measures regressions were utilized with generalized estimating equations (GEE) to examine changes in parenting, family resilience, and communal mastery before and after the intervention for 24 adults and adolescents (12–17) across eight tribal families. Results indicate that the overall quality of parenting improved, as measured by improved parental monitoring and reductions in inconsistent discipline and corporal punishment. We identified sex differences in positive parenting, poor monitoring, and corporal punishment, with greater decreases in these measures among males over time. Family resilience and communal mastery improved for adolescent and adult participants after the WHF program. Our results indicate promising improvements across relational, familial, and community ecological, which provide clear clinical implications.     

Sleep,resilience, and psychological distress in United States military Veterans

Sleep problems are prevalent among Veterans. Left untreated, such problems may elevate psychological distress and increase risk of subsequent mental health disorders. Psychological resilience may buffer against negative psychological outcomes, yet the relationship between sleep and resilience has not been studied. This study explored poor sleep, resilience, and psychological distress using questionnaires collected as part of the Study of Post-Deployment Mental Health. Participants (N = 1,118) had served in the US military since September 11, 2001, had one or more overseas deployments, and were free from a past-month DSM-defined mental health disorder. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the association between poor sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index total score) and psychological distress (Global Symptom Index; Symptom Checklist-90-R), controlling for demographic and health characteristics. Moderation analyses tested for a potential buffering effect of resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale). Poor sleeping Veterans had worse physical and psychological health, lower resilience, and endorsed more lifetime traumatic events. Poor sleep was associated with greater psychological distress controlling for health and demographic characteristics. Both resilience factors—adaptability and self-efficacy—had significant buffering effects on the relationship between poor sleep and psychological distress, suggesting that resilience may protect against negative outcomes in poor sleepers. Additional research is warranted to better understand the relationships between sleep, resilience, and psychological distress. Such research may inform pertinent prevention efforts, including interventions that improve sleep, enhance resilience, and protect against incident mental health diagnoses.     

Unit Cohesion,Resilience, and Mental Health of Soldiers in Basic Combat Training

Military unit cohesion has been shown to correlate with physical and psychological outcomes. However, little is known about the development of cohesion in the early days of military service during Basic Combat Training (BCT) and how it relates to positive support and the negative stressors of training. The current study assessed the development of unit cohesion across the 10-week BCT period (N = 1,939), and the relation of cohesion to stress, resilience, mental health measures, and BCT outcomes (graduation, passing the Army Physical Fitness Test, and final Basic Rifle Marksmanship scores). The sample was primarily male (62%), under age 25 (88%), and unmarried (88%). All putative mediators showed significant change over time. Unit cohesion increased over time (slope 0.22; p < .001), and these increases were associated with decreases in psychological distress (p < .001), sleep problems (p < .001), and tolerance of BCT stressors (p < .001), as well as increases in resilience (p < .001), confidence managing stress reactions (p < .001), and positive states of mind (p < .001). Unit cohesion was indirectly associated with successful graduation and passing the Army Physical Fitness Test through cohesion-related improvement in psychological distress, resilience, and confidence managing reactions to stress. Sleep problems also mediated BCT graduation. Cohesion effects on the Basic Rifle Marksmanship scores were mediated by psychological distress and tolerance of BCT stressors only. These results suggest that unit cohesion may play a key role in the development of psychological health among new soldiers.     

Profiles of adversity and resilience resources: A latent class analysis of two samples

Adversities refer to events that are characterized by perceived or actual threat to human functioning. Often considered deleterious for health and well-being, recent work supports an alternative picture of the effects of adversity on human functioning, such that a moderate amount of adversity – when compared with none or high levels – can be beneficial. We extend this body of work in the current study by considering the breadth or type of adversities experienced simultaneously (referred to as polyadversity), with a focus on individual profiles of lifetime adversities. Latent class analysis was employed to explore different configurations of lifetime adversity experiences in two independent samples and examine how these latent classes differed with regard to resilience resources (i.e., optimism, hope, self-efficacy, and bounce-back ability). University students (N = 348) and members from the broader community (N = 1,506) completed measures of lifetime adversity exposure and resilience resources. Three polyadversity classes were revealed in each sample, with both producing a high and a low polyadversity class. The third class differed between samples; in the student sample, this class represented experiences of vicarious adversity, whereas in the community sample, it represented moderate levels of exposure to adversity. Support for the adaptive nature of a moderate amount of adversity exposure was found in the community sample but not in the student sample. This study produces initial evidence of how lifetime adversity experiences group together and how class membership is related to resilience resources.     

Self-esteem, dispositional optimism, and health: Evidence from cross-lagged data on employees

The aims of this one-year follow-up study among Finnish employees (n=426) were twofold: first, to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and optimism and, second, to examine the prospective relationships between these two personality constructs, mental distress and physical symptoms. The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed that the latent variables of optimism and self-esteem were highly interrelated (Time 1, r=.90, Time 2, r=.87), forming the core construct of personal resilience, which turned out to be stable (stability coefficient .86) over the one-year period. The results of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated that high personal resilience measured at Time 1 reduced mental distress at Time 2. Furthermore, a high level of physical symptoms at Time 1 seemed to predict a high level of mental distress at Time 2.     

Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience

This investigation presents 1) a literature review concerning how adversity and resilience influence the development of youth from diverse cultural backgrounds; 2) an examination of measures of resilience with regard to cultural factors that relate to the nature of coping and resilience among young adults from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds; and 3) the exploration of aspects of cultural resilience: childhood stressors, global coping, adaptive coping, maladaptive coping, and sociocultural support. Results for 305 college age women indicated that cultural factors were related to measures of these five aspects of resilience. Childhood stressors were experienced differentially by individuals from different racial/ethnic and social class status backgrounds, supporting proposals that ecological aspects, notably cultural background and experiences, influence the development of resilience. A conceptual framework illustrating how culture contributes to resilience and coping is presented. Implications for the development of a measure of cultural resilience and its usefulness for developmental community interventions are discussed.     

Is sense of coherence a mediator or moderator of relationships between violence at work and stress reactions?

The relationships between exposure to violence at work, sense of coherence, and stress reactions were analysed in a large sample of the Danish workforce. The results showed that employees subjected to violence have a weaker sense of coherence than the rest of the respondents. Sense of coherence acted as a mediator and not as a moderator of relationships between exposure to violence and psychological, psychosomatic and cognitive stress reactions. The stability of the sense of coherence construct is discussed. With respect to the relation between sense of coherence and violence, preventative measures at the individual and organizational level are suggested.     

Dispositional resilience in treatment‐seeking patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder and its association with treatment outcome

There is a lack of research on the relation between obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) and resilience. Dispositional resilience, as described and defined in literature on hardiness, consists of three facets, namely beliefs about having control in everyday living, having a sense of purpose or commitment, and a positive attitude toward challenges. This study explores associations between dispositional resilience (measured with the Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS‐15‐R)), symptom severity, and treatment outcome in a sample of 89 patients treated with concentrated exposure therapy (cET), and compares the findings with scores from two reference groups (students and soldiers). The patient group had significantly lower resilience scores than the two reference groups. Weak correlations were observed between dispositional resilience and OCD symptoms. Differences in dispositional resilience were weakly related to remission status at follow‐up (odds ratio of 1.11). Furthermore, resilience improved from pre‐ to post‐treatment (Cohen's d of 0.65). Our results imply that patients’ initial resilience score does not hinder nor facilitate treatment effects to a great extent in this format of ERP treatment.     

Sense of coherence, negative life events and appraisal of physical health among university students

We examined the stress-buffering effects of the ‘sense of coherence' among 116 undergraduates (70 females and 46 males) with a mean age of 18.6 years. Self-reported physical well-being and psychological distress were assessed on two occasions separated by two months. Assessment of the sense of coherence occurred at time-one, whereas assessment of negative life-events for the past year occurred at time-two. Sense of coherence correlated negatively with negative life events and reported psychological symptoms of both occasions, and negative life events correlated positively with both assessments of psychological distress. Negative life events correlated positively with physical ailments reported for both occasions only among students low in sense of coherence; this significant correlation persisted after accounting for the relationship between psychological and physical symptoms. We discuss the possible salubrious effects of a sense of coherence on the health appraisals of young adults experiencing stress.     

Emotional intelligence and psychological resilience to negative life events

This study investigated the relative importance of six emotional intelligence (EI) dimensions in the prediction of psychological resilience to multiple negative life events. The strength of relations between life events and distress varied markedly across three latent classes of participants, reflecting vulnerable, average and resilient profiles. Discriminant function analysis indicated that class membership varied as a function of four EI dimensions, with higher scores predicting membership to the resilient class. Across the 414 participants, Emotional Self-Awareness, Emotional Expression, Emotional Self-Control and particularly Emotional Self-Management appeared central to psychological resilience in the aftermath of multiple negative life events.     

Potential traumatic events in early childhood and behavioural resilience: a longitudinal case control study

Abstract

Resilience can be evidenced when an exposure to potentially traumatic event (PTE) has no negative impact on behavior. This study explored the effects of exposure to PTE applying a longitudinal design with 592 children (mean age 4 years) followed across three years. Children who had experienced a PTE and those who had not, were compared over time. Behavioral difficulties and prosocial behaviour for children experiencing PTE did not differ from those who had not experienced a PTE suggesting resilience among the exposed children. PTE in itself seems to carry minimal risk for symptoms of behaviour difficulties among preschool children.