Cultural Variations in Resilience Capacity and Posttraumatic Stress: A Tri-Cultural Comparison

Abstract

Resilience capacity has been associated with individuals’ flexibility and adaptability in responding to potential trauma. Culture-related appraisals influence not only interpretations of etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and perception of severity of PTSD symptoms but also flexible coping strategies. However, adequate research of the mechanisms on how culture may affect the relationship between resilience and PTSD does not yet exist. The present study focused on whether and how culture (America, Hong Kong, and Mainland China) moderated the relationship between resilience capacity and severity of posttraumatic distress. Data were collected at three research sites (America, Hong Kong, and Mainland China) where 558 trauma survivors were recruited. Measures included the Life Events Checklist ( LEC-5), the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 ( PCL-5), and the Revised Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale ( CD-RISC-R). The results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that American participants were more resilient than the participants in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The results of multiple regression indicated that frequency of exposure to trauma was a weaker predictor of severity of PTSD symptoms at high versus low levels of resilience capacity. The results also indicated a weaker moderating effect of Hong Kong versus American culture on the relation between resilience capacity and PTSD. This pilot study highlighted East–West cultural differences in the baselines of resilience capacity and posttraumatic stress and may motivate clinicians and researchers to reevaluate Western diagnostic criteria to psychological trauma conceptualization and treatment for non-Western populations.

Role of Family in Refugee Adjustment: Experiences of Hmong, Somali, and Syrian Refugees in the USA

“…First, participants across the three refugee groups reported that social support offered to one another in the family plays a real difference in their lives and their struggles, and this finding has also been found in previous family resilience studies (Goodman et al, 2017;McCleary, 2017;Zheng et al, 2020). In line with earlier studies on family resilience, our research emphasizes the vital role of family social support in helping refugees cope with the stress associated with postresettlement adjustment.…”

“…Resilience refers to "the ability to … show positive adaptation in spite of significant life adversities and the ability to adapt to difficult and challenging life experiences" (Sossou et al, 2008, p. 367). The concept of family resilience was developed to draw attention to the role of family resources and strengths at the face of adversarial life experiences, in addition to individual characteristics such as optimism, adaptability, perseverance, control, and hardiness (Gori et al, 2021;Toth, 2003;Zheng et al, 2020). Family resilience highlights how a crisis or ongoing adversity, such as acculturative stress, not only affects individual family members but also impacts the whole family as a unit.…”

“…Although the research on refugee trauma is well-documented (Peconga & Thøgersen, 2020;Zheng et al, 2020), few studies focused on the role of the family in the refugee adjustment process, especially in Hmong, Somali, and Syrian refugee families. Most studies, when examining refugee families, tend to focus on family struggles during the adjustment process (Connor et al, 2016;McCleary, 2017;Rizkalla & Segal, 2019;Xiong et al, 2005) instead of examining how families help refugees overcome their trauma and postresettlement adjustment.…”

Exploring the Changes of Suicide Probability During COVID-19 Among Chinese Weibo Users

“…Hence, these results are reliable to a certain extent but should be used with caution. Second, previous studies indicate that there are specific differences in various cultures when people experience traumatic events (Zheng et al, 2020). Since the current study only explores changes in China, cross-cultural research should be considered in the future.…”

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Culture and Resilience Capacity in Trauma Survivors

“…Previously, the results of a three-culture (American culture, Chinese culture, and the culture in Hong Kong) analysis on resilience capacity and trauma have indicated that culture significantly moderates the relationship between levels of resilience capacity and severity of PTSD symptoms (Zheng et al, 2019). Specifically, resilience capacity has been found to be a significant predictor of severity of PTSD symptoms in the American sample and in the Mainland China sample, but not in the Hong Kong sample.…”