This study tests the efficacy of a unique resilience-strengthening intervention using a clustered-randomized controlled trial. It was hypothesized that the training, which encourages adaptive self-reflection on stressor events and the effectiveness of coping strategies and resources, would exert a positive effect on mental health outcomes via increased reflection and decreased brooding. The trial was conducted during a significant stressor period with a final sample of 204 second-class Officer Cadets from the Royal Military College, Australia. Platoons of Cadets were randomly allocated to either Self-Reflection Resilience Training (SRT; n = 96) or an exposure-matched active control group that received training as usual (i.e., cognitivebehavioral skill development training) and communication skills seminars (n = 108). Compared to the active control group, SRT was more effective at preventing the onset of depression symptoms and promoting stable levels of perceived stress during a period of increased exposure to training stressors, consistent with a resilient trajectory. The Self-Reflection group unexpectedly demonstrated higher anxiety symptoms than the Control group at immediate follow-up, but these symptoms returned to baseline levels at longer term follow-up. In contrast, the Control group experienced increasing anxiety symptoms between immediate and longer term follow-up. Mediation analyses supported an indirect effect of SRT on all three outcome measures via brooding, but not via reflection. This study provides support for the capacity of a practical, sustainable, and scalable intervention based on self-reflection to strengthen resilience in the military training setting.

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Large-scale potentially traumatic events (e.g., unprecedented fires and global pandemics) require the involvement of frontline staff critical to managing such crises. These personnel also carry the psychological burden associated with more direct exposure to potentially traumatic events. A critical role for resilience interventions is to support the psychological health of personnel during and after such events. However, there is a notable lack of a conceptual blueprint regarding how to approach the delivery of resilience interventions in the workplace. This article will draw from the current resilience training scholarship with the objective of providing a roadmap for both the enhancement and delivery of resilience training across sectors and future research into resilience interventions. Central to this article is the need for greater integration of organizational training theory into strategies for developing and implementing resilience training in the workplace. Following a brief review of the broad approaches to resilience training, we provide an account of how psychologists and other providers may maximize resilience training effectiveness, drawing on lessons learned from the military experience. Further, we give consideration to the intersection between resilience training and the organizational training scholarship and explore the factors that influence the effect of training on mental health outcomes, including pretraining conditions, training methods and instructional strategies, and posttraining conditions. An overarching challenge for this article is to support the development of a framework for best practice in resilience training that integrates organizational training theory.

Research has demonstrated that adaptive forms of self‐reflection on stressor events and insight may strengthen resilient capacities. However, the coping insights that emerge during self‐reflection are notoriously under‐researched. In this research, we sought to explore the evidence for the self‐reflective activities and coping insights drawn from the Self‐Reflection and Coping Insight Framework and find evidence of new reflections or insights not captured within the framework. Qualitative analysis was used to examine weekly, written self‐reflective journals completed by Officer Cadets involved in a randomised‐controlled trial of Self‐Reflection Resilience Training. Sixty‐eight Officer Cadets who submitted their journals for analysis were included. Journals were analysed using a deductive thematic approach. Findings revealed that self‐reflective activities occurred frequently over the course of the intervention. Coping insights were comparatively less frequent, but conveyed complex ideas about the self in the context of stressor exposure, broad principles about stress and coping, and nuanced interpretations regarding the interaction between the efficacy of coping approaches and broader contextual and intrapersonal factors. These findings demonstrate the critical role of coping insight during Self‐Reflection Resilience Training, with implications for developing a validated self‐report measure of self‐reflective activity and coping insight.