An ecological view of recovery and resilience in trauma survivors: Implications for clinical and community intervention.

Abstract

Human encounters with violence, abuse, atrocity, and catastrophe are widespread, and the psychological consequences of such exposure are often debilitating in the extreme. Indeed, epidemiological research over the past 30 years has confirmed that huge numbers of individuals in the United States and around the world have suffered, or will at some point in their lives suffer, traumatic and potentially traumatic events: some borne of natural disaster, others of human design and deliberation. Researchers and clinicians have further established convincing links between the extreme events to which human beings are exposed and the symptoms of psychological distress and impairment that can follow such exposure.Recognizing that most of the world's trauma survivors never seek or receive professional care, researchers in the traumatic stress studies field have pursued an interest in the posttraumatic response and recovery trajectories of untreated survivors from diverse cultures and contexts. More recently, the field has also exhibited a growing interest in the resilience that survivors, treated and untreated, may bring to the challenge of trauma recovery (Brown, Kallivayalil, Harvey, & Mendelsohn, 2012;Yehuda 2004). These inquiries have implications for the development of effective, culturally informed clinical intervention and for the design of public health and community change

Psychometric properties of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) and its relationship with life-stress, anxiety and depression in a Hispanic Latin-American community sample

“…Unlike other models of adult resilience, the empirical and inductive model developed in Norway equates the relevance of intrapersonal aspects of resilience to resources and competences related to social and family spheres. Latin America is a subcontinent characterized by its collective values and networks of support that act as important assets to overcome individual and social distress [ 44 , 45 ]. Therefore, the RSA might evaluate aspects of protection that express particularized elements of Latin American culture.…”