Resilience Against Traumatic Stress: Current Developments and Future Directions

Abstract

Given the high prevalence of stress-related mental disorders, their impact on person, family, and society and the paucity of treatment options for most of these disorders, there is currently a pressing need for innovative approaches to deal with these issues and enhance well-being. One approach which has received increasing attention over the last decade is to shift our scientific and clinical focus from risk factors for psychopathology to factors promoting resilience and mental well-being. In order to summarize and evaluate the current state of scientific affairs on the biological basis of resilience, we provide an overview of the literature on animal and human studies of resilience. Because resilience can only truly be operationalized through longitudinal data collection and analyses, we focus primarily on longitudinal studies. This review shows that the concept of resilience is currently being operationalized, measured and even defined in widely variable manners, both within animal and human studies. We further provide an overview of existing and new strategies that could help promote resilience and which are proposed to be implemented more often in clinical situations. Finally, we summarize the challenges the field is facing and provide recommendations for future research.

Combined Effects of Parenting in Childhood and Resilience on Work Stress in Nonclinical Adult Workers From the Community

“…As mentioned in Introduction, the subjective nature of job stressors indicates that the intensity of stressors depends on individual personality traits, i.e., an individual's sensitivity to stressors. Furthermore, neuroticism and resilience may be altered by childhood experiences, life events, and treatment (12,41,54,55). Therefore, resilience can be not only a moderator of stress but also a mediator of stress, as shown by the results of this study.…”

Resilience and Stress in Later Life: A Network Analysis Approach Depicting Complex Interactions of Resilience Resources and Stress-Related Risk Factors in Older Adults

“…While resilience research experienced an exponential growth in the last three decades, a consensus has yet to be achieved regarding how to define, conceptualize, or quantify the psychological construct of resilience ( Southwick et al, 2014 ; Snijders et al, 2018 ). Nevertheless, nowadays, most experts would agree that resilience is a common and ordinary phenomenon, describing positive adaptation to negative life circumstances, and the relative stability (or swift recovery) of psychosocial, mental, and physical functioning following exceptionally stressful periods or situations (e.g., Masten, 2001 ; Bonanno, 2004 ; Bonanno et al, 2011 ; Southwick et al, 2014 ; Liu et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Resilience research has since come a long way beyond the investigation of outstanding personality attributes in young individuals ( Masten, 2014 ; Southwick et al, 2014 ). For instance, the inclusion of a social-ecological perspective ( Ungar, 2011 ) has broadened the scope of resilience research to the prediction of positive outcomes after exceptional stress, facilitated by a diverse set of individual (e.g., coping skills) and external (e.g., social support) psychosocial resilience factors and processes ( Iacoviello and Charney, 2014 ; Liu et al, 2017 ; Snijders et al, 2018 ). As the concept of resilience advanced, (high) resilience came to be understood as having a meaningful and effective collection of resilience factors for overcoming a specific stressful situation ( Ungar, 2011 ).…”

Circulating Serum MicroRNAs as Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Pilot Study

“…Of note, the present paper refers to trauma-exposed healthy individuals as being “resilient” in order to create a clear differentiation between trauma-exposed healthy subjects and nonexposed control subjects. However, we do acknowledge and emphasize that resilience is more than just the reverse side of PTSD or the absence of symptomatology (Kalisch et al, 2017; Snijders et al, 2018b). Instead, resilience is an active and dynamic process that needs to remain separated from the multifaceted and complex nature of PTSD.…”