The Essential Resilience Scale: Instrument Development and Prediction of Perceived Health and Behaviour

The role of resilience in the relationship between stress and alcohol

Stress plays a well-documented role in alcohol consumption and the risk for developing alcohol use disorder. The concept of resilience - coping with and successfully adapting to stressful life experiences - has received increasing attention in the field of addiction research in recent decades, and there has been an accumulation of evidence for resilience as a protective factor against problematic alcohol consumption, risk for alcohol use disorder, disorder severity, and relapse. The conceptual and methodological approaches used in the generation of this evidence vary considerably across investigations, however. In light of this, we carried out this review in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the meaning and scope of resilience, what factors contribute to resilience, how it is measured, and how it relates to alcohol-associated phenotypes. Implications for treatment through the use of resilience-building interventions are likewise discussed, as well as implications for future research on the role of resilience in the etiology and clinical outcomes of alcohol use disorder.

Measuring resilience for Chinese-speaking populations: a systematic review of Chinese resilience scales

Introduction

Despite the rapid growth of interdisciplinary resilience research in Chinese contexts, no study has systematically reviewed individual-level measurement scales for Chinese-speaking populations. We report a systematic review of scales developed for or translated/adapted to Chinese-speaking contexts, where we assessed how widely used scales fare in terms of their psychometric qualities.

Methods

Studies included in this review must have been published in peer-reviewed English or Chinese journals between 2015-2020 and included self-reported resilience scales in Chinese-speaking populations. Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, CNKI (completed in May 2021), and PubMed (completed in January 2024). We developed coding schemes for extracting relevant data and adapted and applied an existing evaluation framework to assess the most frequently used resilience scales by seven methodological criteria.

Results

Analyses of 963 qualified studies suggested that Chinese resilience scales were used in a diverse range of study contexts. Among 85 unique kinds of resilience measures, we highlighted and evaluated the three most frequently used translated scales and three locally developed scales (nine scales in total including variations such as short forms). In short, resilience studies in Chinese contexts relied heavily on the translated 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, which scored moderately on the overall quality. The locally developed Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents and Essential Resilience Scale received the best ratings but could use further development.

Discussion

We discussed how future work may advance widely used scales, and specified seven methodological recommendations for future resilience scale development with existing and new scales in and beyond the Chinese study contexts. We further addressed issues and challenges in measuring resilience as a process and called on researchers to further develop/evaluate process measures for Chinese-speaking populations.

Stress and emotion in a locked campus: the moderating effects of resilience and loneliness

The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic relationship between Chinese students' emotions and stress during a strict lockdown period in a university setting and the context of a global pandemic. Dynamic structural equation modeling was used to investigate the moderating role of resilience and loneliness in this relationship. The participants consisted of 112 students. Based on loneliness and resilience measures and the intensive tracking of emotional stress over a 21-day period, the results of data analysis indicated that the students' overall levels of positive emotions were low and relatively independent of negative emotions. Negative emotions were significantly autoregressive and their baseline was closely related to the individual's overall feelings of stress and loneliness levels, fluctuating with feelings of stress. The results confirm the hypothesis that resilience helps to stabilize emotions. Individuals with low resilience may be more emotionally sensitive in confined environments, while receiving social support may help to alleviate low moods.

A systematic review of cross-cultural measures of resilience and its promotive and protective factors

As psychological resilience has been increasingly recognized as contextually constructed, mixed methods studies that map out local ecologies of resilience have become increasingly common. However, the direct adaptation of quantitative tools for cross-cultural use based on qualitative findings has been relatively lacking. The current review aims to provide an overview of existing measures of resilience used cross-culturally and to synthesize the protective and promotive factors and processes (PPFP) of resilience identified within these measures into a single resource. A January 2021 search of PubMed for studies of the development of psychological resilience measures that excluded studies of non-psychological resilience yielded 58 unique measures. These measures contain 54 unique PPFP of resilience, ranging from individual to communal-level characteristics. This review is intended to serve as a complementary tool for adapting standardized measures for stakeholders requiring an assessment tool that is attuned to their context for mental health risk assessment and intervention evaluation.

A simultaneous concept analysis of resilience, coping, posttraumatic growth, and thriving

BACKGROUND

Research has shifted in recent decades from a focus on negative effects of adversity, trauma, and stress to protective factors and positive outcomes. Resilience and related concepts (coping, posttraumatic growth, thriving, and preparedness) reflect this shift. However, the current state of literature reflects conceptualization challenges in relation to these terms, which blur their differentiation.

AIM

We aim to examine how resilience and related terms are conceptualized in health-related literature.

DESIGN

We used a simultaneous concept analysis to independently explore and further inform the conceptual development of resilience, coping, PTG, and thriving.

DATA SOURCE

We searched PsycINFO and PubMed for literature between 1999 and 2019 for each of our concepts.

REVIEW METHODS

For each of these concepts, we propose a definition, antecedents, attributes, an example, consequences, and related concepts. Next, we concurrently examined the concepts, compared and contrasted findings across them, and clarified similarities as well as differences between them.

RESULTS

Many concepts' definitions lack specificity, clear boundaries, and consistency across the literature. Resilience literature fails to differentiate between attributes and antecedents of resilience. There was overlap regarding conceptualization between resilience and coping, and resilience and thriving.

CONCLUSIONS

Several concepts' definitional literature diverged between a return to baseline functioning and surpassing baseline.

Measuring Italian Resilience

Abstract. The Essential Resilience Scale (ERS) measures global trait resilience and three factors of physical, emotional, and social resilience. This study developed an Italian adaptation of the ERS and recruited participants from Italy ( N = 500) to complete the measure along with criterion validity measures of broad personality traits and related psychological concepts. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated robust evidence for a well-fitting three-factor model of the ERS, with items strongly loading onto their respective latent factors. Utilizing Samejima’s graded response model, most item discrimination values were moderate-to-high, and category threshold parameters were well-distributed throughout the latent continuum. The ERS showed correlations in the expected directions with extraversion, emotionality, optimism, mastery, resilience, behavioral activation, behavioral inhibition, stress, and well-being. Cultural invariance was supported (at the scale- and item-level) with multigroup CFA and differential item functioning (DIF) with a sample of Canadian English speakers ( N = 874). Findings evinced the internal consistency (i.e., total MacDonald’s ω), factorial validity (i.e., three-factor CFA), criterion validity (i.e., personality, temperament), and convergent validity (i.e., trait resilience and well-being) of the Italian ERS. Results suggest the Italian ERS can be applied for measuring resilience for future research studies in Italian-speaking populations.

Resilience and occupational health of health care workers: a moderator analysis of organizational resilience and sociodemographic attributes

Objectives

Although previous studies have proposed a positive influence of resilience on the mental and physical health of health care workers, empirical evidence on its relationship with occupational health remains scarce. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between individual resilience and several occupational health indicators, as well as exploring the moderating role of organizational resilience and sociodemographic attributes on this relationship.

Methods

A cross-sectional design was used with a questionnaire applied to a sample of 325 workers from the Spanish health care sector.

Results

Individual resilience was significantly associated with the indicators of occupational health. A direct effect of individual resilience on job satisfaction was found. The influence of resilience on the perception of fatigue and suffering from an illness was reverse. Age moderated the impact of resilience on the perception of stress and medical leave. Besides, organizational resilience proved to be an important adjustment variable in job satisfaction and perception of stress.

Conclusions

The findings show the relevance to take both individual and organizational resilience into account when applying intervention programs to improve the occupational health of health care workers.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00420-021-01725-8.

Culturally sensitive conceptualization of resilience: A multidimensional model of Chinese resilience

Cultural sensitivity is missing in the widely researched construct of resilience. The assumption that resilience takes the same form in all cultures fails to acknowledge that culture shapes the interpretation and instantiation of resilience. Examining how suffering and adversity are perceived and dealt with in Chinese contexts, can identify cultural concepts related to resilience. In this paper, we examine the ways in which Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, the three main belief systems that have influenced Chinese people's perception of the nature of life, can serve as sources of strength to individuals facing adversity. We summarise three culturally inflected elements of dealing with adversities and compare them with existing, widely researched notions of resilience. Taking a socio-ecological perspective to explore resilience, this paper proposes a multidimensional model that can improve understanding of culturally embedded resilience.

Gingival inflammation influences oral health-related quality of life in individuals living in a rural area of southern Brazil

AIM

The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to evaluate whether the extent levels of gingival inflammation (GI) in whole mouth or restricted to the anterior region are independently associated with oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in individuals living in a rural area of southern Brazil.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A probability sample of 688 individuals was submitted to a full-mouth periodontal examination at six sites on each tooth. Extent levels of GI in whole mouth and restricted to anterior region were dichotomously considered when bleeding on probing (BoP) occurred at 20% or more of whole-mouth sites and at 10% or more of anterior region sites, respectively, in individuals with probing depths ≤3 mm, totalling 121 individuals analysed, aged 15-82 years. OHRQoL was assessed using the simplified version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP₁₄ ) questionnaire. Adjusted multilevel Poisson regression analysis was used with a conceptual hierarchical approach to calculate the rate ratio (RR) of OHIP₁₄ scores.

RESULTS

In the adjusted model, higher extent levels of full-mouth GI (RR = 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06-1.44; p = .004) and GI restricted to the anterior region (RR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.11-1.51; p ≤ .001) were significantly associated with poorer OHRQoL.

CONCLUSIONS

The extent of GI in whole mouth (≥20% of sites with BoP) and in the anterior region (≥10% of sites with BoP) was independently associated with OHRQoL in individuals living in a rural area.

Resilience, mental health and urban migrants: a narrative review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative review of the literature on mental health resilience and other positive mental health capacities of urban and internal migrants.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology for this narrative review included a search of articles published up to 2017. The abstracts were screened and relevant articles studied and discussed. Literature on the particular mental health challenges of urban migrants in India was also studied. References found in the literature relating to neurourbanism were also followed up to explore broader historical and conceptual contexts.

Findings

Several key sources and resources for mental health resilience were identified – including familial and community networks and individual hope or optimism. Nevertheless, much of the literature tends to focus at the level of the individual person, even though ecological systems theory would suggest that mental health resilience is better understood as multi-layered, i.e. relevant to, and impacted by, communities and broader societal and environmental contexts.

Originality/value

This paper provides insight into an aspect of migrant mental health that has tended to be overlooked hitherto: the mental health resilience and positive mental health capacities of urban migrants. This is particularly relevant where professional “expert” mental health provision for internal migrant communities is absent or unaffordable. Previous work has tended to focus predominantly on mental health risk factors, despite growing awareness that focusing on risk factors along can lead to an over-reliance on top-down expert-led interventions and overlook positive capacities for mental health that are sometimes possessed by individuals and their communities.

Towards a Transversal Definition of Psychological Resilience: A Literature Review

Background and objectives: This paper addresses psychological resilience, a multidisciplinary theoretical construct with important practical implications for health sciences. Although many definitions have been proposed in several contexts, an essential understanding of the concept is still lacking up to now. This negatively affects comparisons among research results and makes objective measurement difficult. The aim of this review is to identify shared elements in defining the construct of resilience across the literature examined in order to move toward a conceptual unification of the term. Materials and methods: A literature review was performed using the electronic databases 'PubMed' and 'PsycINFO'. Scientific studies written in English between 2002 and May 2019 were included according to the following key terms: 'Psychological', 'resilience', and 'definition'. Results: The review identifies five macro-categories that summarize what has been reported in the recent literature concerning the resilience phenomenon. They serve as a preliminary and necessary step toward a conceptual clarification of the construct. Conclusions: We propose a definition of psychological resilience as the ability to maintain the persistence of one's orientation towards existential purposes. It constitutes a transversal attitude that can be understood as the ability to overcome the difficulties experienced in the different areas of one's life with perseverance, as well as good awareness of oneself and one's own internal coherence by activating a personal growth project. The conceptual clarification proposed will contribute to improving the accuracy of research on this topic by suggesting future paths of investigation aimed at deeply exploring the issues surrounding the promotion of resilience resources.

Social capital and PTSD among PLWHA in China: the mediating role of resilience and internalized stigma

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is frequent among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Few studies have investigated social-psychological predictors of PTSD in China. This study aimed to examine relationships between social capital, stigma, resilience and PTSD among PLWHA in China, and to provide effective suggestions for PTSD intervention. A cross-sectional study of 520 PLWHA was conducted from November 2015 to January 2016. Survey data were collected using anonymous self-reported questionnaire. Multivariable analyses were used to examine related factors of PTSD, and causal mediation analyses were conducted to assess whether stigma and resilience were mediators. Results indicated that higher risk of PTSD was independent associated with stronger stigma, decreasing social capital and lower resilience. There was an indirect relationship of social capital on PTSD mediated through resilience and HIV-related stigma. Therefore, PTSD intervention programs should not only pay attention to the role of social capital on PTSD, but also attach importance to stigma and resilience on PTSD symptoms.

Relationships Between Stress, Negative Emotions, Resilience, and Smoking: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model

OBJECTIVE

More effective tobacco prevention and cessation programs require in-depth understanding of the mechanism by which multiple factors interact with each other to affect smoking behaviors. Stress has long been recognized as a risk factor for smoking. However, the underlying mediation and moderation mechanisms are far from clear. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of negative emotions in mediating the link between stress and smoking and whether this indirect link was modified by resilience.

METHODS

Survey data were collected using audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) from a large random sample of urban residents (n = 1249, mean age = 35.1, 45.3% male) in Wuhan, China. Perceived stress, negative emotions (anxiety, depression), resilience were measured with reliable instruments also validated in China. Self-reported smoking was validated with exhaled carbon monoxide.

RESULTS

Mediation analysis indicated that two negative emotions fully mediated the link between stress and intensity of smoking (assessed by number of cigarettes smoked per day, effect =.082 for anxiety and.083 for depression) and nicotine dependence (assessed by DSM-IV standard, effect =.134 for anxiety and.207 for depression). Moderated mediation analysis demonstrated that the mediation effects of negative emotions were negatively associated with resilience.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest resilience interacts with stress and negative emotions to affect the risk of tobacco use and nicotine dependence among Chinese adults. Further research with longitudinal data is needed to verify the findings of this study and to estimate the effect size of resilience in tobacco intervention and cessation programs.