Although clinicians and researchers are interested in the phenomenon of resilience, there is no agreed-upon definition of resilience. Scientific evidence suggests that resilience is influenced by intrapersonal (e.g. personality traits) and environmental (e.g. social support) variables. A concept analysis was conducted to better understand the meaning of resilience. In this analysis, the antecedent of resilience was a potentially traumatic event; the defining attributes were ego-resiliency, emotion regulation, social support, and heredity; and the consequences were none to mild psychopathological symptoms and positive adaptation. This analysis can help nurses better understand resilience and its relationships to both intrapersonal and environmental variables.

When exposed to adversity, some individuals are at an increased risk of posttraumatic stress disorder, experiencing persistent biopsychosocial disturbances, whereas others adapt well, described as resilience. Resilience is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon conceptualized as adaptation to adversity influenced by an individual's genetic variants, epistasis, epigenetics, and gene-by-environment interactions. Studies on psychological resilience have focused on behavioral and psychosocial variables with far less examination of the genetic contributions. The purpose of this review is to identify specific genetic variants contributing to the biological capacity for psychological resilience. PubMed and PsycINFO were searched using the following key words: psychological resilience AND genotype(s). Additional articles were identified from the Human Genome Epidemiology Navigator using the term resilience, psychological. Ten studies met the criteria. Six genes were empirically associated with psychological resilience: serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region ( 5-HTTLPR), dopamine receptor D4, brain-derived neurotrophic factor ( BDNF), corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1, oxytocin receptor and regulator of G-protein signaling 2 . The findings of this systematic review suggest that the L/L or L'/L' genotype of 5-HTTLPR and rs25531 in children/adolescents and the S/S or S'/S' genotype in adults are most frequently related to resilience. Additionally, the Val/Val genotype of rs6265 in BDNF in Caucasians was also associated with resilience. There are numerous factors contributing to the complexity of determining the genetic influence on resilience including analysis of rs25531, assumptions of the mode of inheritance, operationalization of resilience, demographic and population characteristics, sample size, and other types of genetic influence including epistasis and epigenetics. While current evidence is supportive, further investigation of the genetic influence on resilience is required.

Introduction: Perceived control is an individual’s subjective beliefs about the amount of control he or she has over the environment or outcome. Objective: To examine the relationship between perceived control, preventive health behaviors, and mental health effects of undergraduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional correlational study used online self-administered questionnaires. Participants were nursing students attending 3 universities in Tokyo, Japan. Relationships among variables were quantitatively analyzed using linear regressions and a structural equation modeling after adjusting for demographic factors. Results: A total of 557 students participated in the survey. The analysis indicated that higher levels of perceived control were significantly related to higher levels of preventive health behaviors. Although higher preventive health behaviors were related to negative mental health effects, higher levels of perceived health competence translated to improved mental health effects. Perceived control was not directly related to mental health effects but positively related to perceived health competence. Long work hours per week and short hours of sleep per day were associated with lower preventive health behaviors. There were significant differences in the levels of perceived control and preventive health behaviors among students at the 3 universities. Discussion: To improve health behaviors and health competence and subsequently alleviate the mental health effects caused by strictly adhering to recommended health behaviors, students may be supported by the strategies that increase their perceived control. In addition to institutional support, students also require adequate sleep and financial stability to help prevent infections while protecting their mental health.

Introduction Studies investigating the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and depression among older adults have yielded inconsistent results. We suspect that this may be due to varying associations between CRP and particular depression symptom criteria, and we addressed this challenge using network analysis. Methods We used cross-sectional data from prepandemic National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey questionnaires (2017–2020) and included a sample of 1698 adults aged 65 years or older. Depression symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Unregularized Mixed Graphical Models were estimated using the R package mgm before and after adjusting for relevant sociodemographic, clinical, and lifestyle covariates. Results In the model with no covariates, the only symptom criterion associated with CRP was “appetite problems.” This association remained robust after controlling for all covariates. Although not associated with CRP, other criteria such as “fatigue” and “concentration difficulty” showed associations with important covariates for older adults such as white blood cell count or hemoglobin, respectively. Discussion The CRP-related variability in the depression symptom network that we have demonstrated may help explain the reported inconsistencies. The present study stands as exploratory, and future research should focus on applying longitudinal designs and including several other inflammatory proteins and covariates that were not measured in the current network model.

BackgroundBoth individual and policy level perceived control are known to be positively related to preventive behavior, and both may differ among healthcare graduate students with different cultural backgrounds. This study compared the preventive health behavior and perceived control among domestic and international healthcare graduate students in Japan and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzed factors associated with preventive health behavior and perceived control.MethodsThe study used a self-administered online survey, conducted at two universities in Japan and one university in the United States. The survey included sociodemographic data and scales of preventive health behaviors, perceived control (policy level), and perceived health competence (individual level). Association among variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling.ResultsA total of 610 students (485 domestic and 125 international) in Japan and 231 students (220 domestic and 11 international) in the United States completed the survey. Participants' average age was 31.3 years, and 67.0% were female. Model fit of structural equation modeling was good (χ2 = 9.419, P = 0.151, comparative fit index = 0.995, RMSEA = 0.026). Japanese students had better preventive health behavior than American (β = −0.407, P < 0.001) and international students in both countries (β = −0.112, P < 0.001). However, Japanese students had significantly lower perceived control than American students (β = 0.346, P < 0.001) and international students in both countries (β = 0.188, P < 0.001). Overall higher perceived control (β = 0.175, P < 0.001) and being female (β = 0.141, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with better preventive behavior. Although higher perceived control was related to higher perceived health competence (β = 0.295, P < 0.001), perceived health competence was not associated with preventive behavior (β = 0.025, P = 0.470). Religion was not associated with perceived control or preventive behavior.ConclusionNationality was identified as the main factor associated with both perceived control and preventive behavior. Policy level perceived control was more strongly associated with preventive health behavior than individual level perceived health competence. Further investigations in the contribution of specific cultural dimensions associated with perceived control and preventive behaviors are recommended.