Skip to main content

Table 2 Key empirical studies that identify indicators of psychological resilience

From: Measuring psychological resilience to disasters: are evidence-based indicators an achievable goal?

Authors, year

Event, location and year

Indicators of resilience

Effect of the indicator on resilience

Resilient outcome (measurement)

Bonanno et al., 2008

SARS epidemic, Hong Kong (People’s Republic of China) 2003

Physical functioning 6 months after hospitalization

positive

Psychological functioning (SF-12 - MCS) – Resilience trajectory determined by latent class analysis

Female gender

negative

Social support

positive

Event-related worry

negative

Lee et al., 2009

Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans (USA) 2005

Psychological distress

negative

Perceived sense of recovery (a dichotomous variable)

Income

positive

Human loss

negative

Johannesson et al. 2011

Tsunami, South East Asia 2005

Intensity of exposure

negative

Resilient trajectory (IES-R ≤ 41.6 in two measurements)

Loss of relatives

negative

Highly exposed

negative

Non-impaired mental health (GHQ-12, with cut-off ≥ 3 indicating impaired mental health)

Female gender

negative

Loss of relatives

negative

Older age > 60 years

positive

Married

positive

Childhood trauma

negative

More than 3 traumas in adulthood

negative

Recent trauma

negative

Previous psychiatric illness

negative

Social support

positive

Hobfoll et al., 2009

Terrorist attacks, Israel 2004-2005

Ethnic majority

positive

Recovery trajectory (here called resilience recovery) Initial symptoms related to traumatic stress (17-item PTSD Symptom Scale) and depressive mood (5-item measure of depressive symptoms from the Patient Health Questionnaire) followed by recovery

Income

positive

Psychosocial resource loss

negative

Traumatic growth

negative

Male gender

positive

Resilient trajectory (here called resistance) is defined by absence of traumatic (17-item PTSD Symptom Scale) or depression symptoms (5-item measure of depressive symptoms from the Patient Health Questionnaire) at both points in time

High income

positive

Being secular

positive

Higher education

positive

Ethnic majority

positive

Psychosocial resource loss

negative

Social support

positive

Bonanno et al., 2007

9/11 terrorist attack, New York (USA) 2001

Female gender

negative

Having 1 or 0 PTSD symptoms (National Women’s Study PTSD module) at any point in the first 6 months after event

Age > 65 year

positive

Asian race/ethnicity

positive

College degree

negative

Depression

negative

Marihuana use

negative

Having an income decline

negative

Having 1 or 2 chronic diseases

negative

Having 3 or more chronic diseases

negative

Having a medium-low level of social support

negative

Being directly affected by event

negative

Having 1 additional recent life stressor

negative

Having 2 or more additional recent life stressors

negative

Having 2 or 3 prior traumas

negative

Having 4 or more prior traumas

negative

Experiencing post-event trauma

negative

Hobfoll et al., 2012

Chronic exposure to political violence and social upheaval, Palestinian Authority 2007-2008

High social support

positive

Engagement, defined as a persistent, pervasive and positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment (8-item adapted from Schaufeli, Salanova, González-romá and Bakker 2002)

Resource loss

negative

High traumatic exposure

positive

Male gender

positive

Being more educated

positive

Younger

positive

  

Religiosity

positive

 
  1. PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; IES-R, impact of event scale-revised; SF-12 – MCS, short form 12 (items) – mental component summary; GHQ-12, general health questionnaire 12 (items).