Predictors of resilience among adolescent disaster survivors: A path analysis

Risk and protective factors for resilience among adolescents and young adults with beta-thalassemia major

BACKGROUND

Resilience is the ability to overcome adversity in response to a potentially traumatic event. It can relieve people's discomfort and build personal capacity when facing a stressful situation such as beta thalassemia major. Resilience is a complex and multidimensional concept and is influenced by protective and risk factors. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to (1) investigate the relationship between protective (social support and hope) and risk (uncertainty and defensive coping) factors with resilience and (2) examine the mediating role of courageous coping between these protective and risk factors in resilience.

METHODS

This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 312 adolescents and young adults with beta-thalassemia major aged 12-24 years; they were selected using purposeful sampling from two different outpatient thalassemia clinics in the south of Iran. Data were collected in a face-to-face survey using Zimmet Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Herth Hope, Stewart Uncertainty in Illness scale, Jalowiec Coping, and Connor-Davidson resilience Scale from April 2022 to November 2022. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive tests, Pearson correlation, and a structural equation model.

RESULTS

According to the main findings of mediation analysis, courageous coping partially mediated the relationship between social support and resilience [(β = 0.042; 95% BC CI (0.003, 0.131)] and fully mediated the relationship between hope and resilience [(β = 0.166; 95% BC CI (0.031, 0.348)]. In other cases, uncertainty and defensive coping had a direct and indirect effect on resilience, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Based on these results, health professionals and healthcare policymakers should consider this mediator in developing programs to improve resilience. Also, the use of courageous coping could modulate the effect of defensive coping on resilience. Therefore, teaching the use of courageous coping can play an important role in improving resilience.

Psychometric properties of the Korean adaptation of the communities advancing resilience toolkit (CART) assessment survey

AIMS

This study aimed to establish a cross-cultural adaptation of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) assessment survey for Korean communities (K-CART) and evaluated its psychometric properties of K-CART.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study design was used.

METHODS

A forward and backward translation of the CART was conducted. The psychometric properties of K-CART were evaluated with test-retest reliability, internal consistency, content validity and construct validity. A field study was conducted involving 315 older adults in Pohang city, South Korea from January to March, 2019. Two versions of K-CART were analysed, based on the four-factor and the expanded five-factor K-CART.

RESULTS

The test-retest reliability and internal consistency were acceptable (intraclass consistency coefficient = .90). The consistency reliability was satisfactory (Cronbach's α = 0.91). The content validity index (CVI) was found to be acceptable; wherein the item-CVI and scale-CVI were both 0.95. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the construct validity of the expanded K-CART with five factors reached a more acceptable model fit (χ² /df = 2.27, CFI = 0.89, TLI = 0.86, RMESA = 0.05).

Resilience Among Residents from the Areas First Affected by COVID-19 in South Korea

Purpose

This study aimed to identify the factors affecting the resilience of residents of South Korea, from areas where the coronavirus disease of 2019 outbreak first occurred.

Methods

A cross-sectional design was used, with a convenience sample of 212 residents from Daegu and Gyeongbuk, areas that were first affected by COVID-19 in South Korea. Data were collected through a structured self-administered survey from September 3 to September 5, 2020. The questionnaire included general characteristics, post-traumatic stress, perceived health status, family history, and resilience. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression.

Results

Resilience was correlated with post-traumatic stress, perceived health status, and family hardiness. Factors influencing resilience were family hardiness, economic status, and residence.

Conclusion

There is a need for strategies and intervention programs that aim to improve family resilience and reduce the impact of economic losses caused by pandemics.

Disaster Resilience Differs between Survivors and Victims’ Families: A Semantic Network Analysis

The main purpose of this study is to clarify the difference in disaster resilience between survivors and victims’ families by analyzing the language used in popular literature on disaster cases. The results showed that there were differences in emotions, behaviors, attitudes, role perceptions, etc., between survivors and victims’ families in dealing with a disaster. In particular, survivors remember and think about the situation that occurred at the time of the disaster, which creates resilience to the incident, while victims’ families attempt to establish resilience to the incident by investigating the facts and government countermeasures. While survivors were focused on building their own resilience, victims’ families were more focused on improving government countermeasures to prevent such accidents from recurring. This can be considered as social or national resilience. Based on this comparative analysis, it is necessary to prepare various theoretical foundations for disaster preparedness and resilience, while further elaborating the theory.