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Essay: Review of studies on resilience

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  • Published: 15 September 2019*
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Resilience is the ability to recover quickly and easily from the adverse and challenging situation. It is a hot topic among positive psychology related research. Unlike traditional psychology which focuses on the negative side of human being, positive psychology is the study of psychology which focuses on the positive aspect of human being and how to make people live contently. A critical point of positive psychology is positive individual traits, which focus on people’s strengths and virtues. Resilience is one of the powers and abilities people have. Resilience plays a vital role in shaping people’s attitude towards adverse circumstances and deciding whether people can achieve success in a disadvantaged situation. There are lots of factors affecting and promoting resilience according to recent studies.

In Understanding Resilience (Meadows, Miller, & Robson, 2015) and Definitions, Characteristics, and Assessments of Resilience (Langeland, Manheim, McLeod, & Nacouzi, 2016), a general understanding of resilience and the general terms of resilience can be learned. One study points out that stress can cause negative effects and people can take actions or use resources to counteract that negative effect (Langeland et al., 2016). So, the ability to bounce back after experiencing stress is called resilience.

The Genetic and Environmental Processes in Young Children’s Resilience and Vulnerability to Socioeconomic Deprivation (Kim-Cohen, Moffitt, Caspi, & Taylor, 2004) points out that both gene and environment can affect the resilience of children who are exposed to socioeconomic (SES) deprivation. The SES deprivation is a kind of stress and adverse condition here. Children from SES deprivation family are more likely to develop behavioral and cognitive problems than children from the ordinary family (Kim-Cohen et al., 2004). However, protective factors can help mitigate the degree and possibility that children will have these problems. The protective factors can be classified into two categories: the child-specific protective element and the family-wide protective factor. Since these protective factors can offset the negative sides of poverty, they can promote children’s adaption to the disadvantageous situation. The child-specific protective factor is the outgoing temperament of the children. Children with outgoing characteristic will have the confidence and willingness to help them deal with new tasks and strangers. The family-wide protective factors are maternal warmth and stimulating activities. The parent support can help prevent children from developing behavioral and cognitive problems. Besides, children with parental support are more likely to be provided with cognitive stimulation, which is beneficial to their cognitive and behavioral development ((Kim-Cohen et al., 2004).

The result of the research claims that maternal warmth can promote behavioral resilience and children’s outgoing temperament, while stimulating activities can promote cognitive resilience (Kim-Cohen et al., 2004). Besides, the result points out that “resilience is partly heritable and that protective processes operate through both genetic and environmental effects” (Kim-Cohen et al., 2004). Thus, both gene and environment can affect the resilience of children.

The Review of Programs for Promoting Resilience (Meredith et al., 2011) and the Literature and Expert Review to Identify Factors That Promote Resilience (Meredith et al., 2011) both discuss detailed ways to promote resilience in the military. Both individual and unit level factors can promote resilience. Individual resilience factors include positive thinking, positive coping, behavioral control, positive affect, realism, physical fitness, altruism. Unit-level factors include family resilience factors, unit resilience factors, community resilience factors (Meredith et al., 2011). Additionally, family communication, family adaptability, emotional ties, family support, family closeness, and family nurturing are the particular factors belonging to family resilience factors. Positive command climate, teamwork, and unit cohesion are the specific factors belonging to unit resilience factors. Community connectedness, community cohesion, belongingness, and collective efficacy are belonged to community resilience factors (Meredith et al., 2011).

Individual-level factors discuss the resilience factors from the personal perspective. Raising up the consciousness to use coping strategies and teaching coping skills can help develop positive coping. Positive affect, which is positive emotion and optimism, can reduce stress and negative feeling. Draining adverse mental and emotional reactions, activating a positive state, and incorporating humor can help prompt positive effect. Avoiding thinking traps and challenging negative and irrational beliefs can help promote positive thinking (Meredith et al., 2011).

Realism is “realistic mastery of the possible/having realistic outcome expectations, self-esteem/self-worth, confidence, self-efficacy, perceived control/acceptance of what is beyond control or cannot be changed” (Meredith et al., 2011). Improving self-regulation and self-discovery can lead to better behavioral control and reduce the opportunity to be impulsive. Improving physical fitness by exercising and getting adequate sleep and nutrition can improve one’s health, thus promoting resilience (Meredith et al., 2011). Altruism is to be unselfish and care about other’s welfare even without reward. When higher self-awareness and higher self-efficacy achieved, altruism can be promoted and increased.

Family resilience factors study the effect the family has on resilience. Emotional ties with family members can be served as a source of support and strength.; however, how to cope with and adapt to separation with family is also crucial to emotional ties. Encouraging the expression of love and increasing the understanding of the benefit of communication can strengthen family communication. Family members can provide emotional, tangible, and spiritual support, which can foster family closeness. Excellent parenting skills and family nurturing can help the military better deal with the separation. Family adaptability is how family adapts to the separation and deployment and be flexible to different situations (Meredith et al., 2011).

Unit resilience factors discuss the factors from a team level. Positive command climate is “facilitating and fostering intra-unit interaction, building pride/support for the mission, leadership, positive role modeling, and implementing institutional policies” (Meredith et al., 2011). A leader in a team needs to be proactive and supportive of the subordinates and the team. Only when the team has teamwork spirit, can the team achieve unit cohesion.

Community resilience factors study the effect the community has on resilience. Increasing the link and contact of members in a community can improve community belongingness. Community cohesion is the bond that brings the family of military together. Increasing quality and number of connections within the community can make the team have a better community connectedness. Collective efficacy is “group members’ perceptions of the ability of the group to work together” (Meredith et al., 2011). Excellent individual performance of employees can make the team increase its productivity.

By studying resilience and its affecting factor of different groups of people, researchers can learn how to better foster and promote resilience. Understanding the resilience promotion factors of children can help children solve problems and overcome difficulties during their growth. By studying the resilience of the military, the military can increase their combat forces and can cope with the adverse situations better. The research of resilience is meaningful and useful.

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