The relationship between cultural variables and resilience to psychological trauma: A systematic review of the literature.

Abstract

The construct of resilience has been of interest to social scientists for several decades, with a range of definitions describing traits, contexts, and processes of growth. Research with trauma-exposed populations suggests that resilience is a common trajectory, but the mechanisms that facilitate resilience are not entirely clear. This is especially the case with cross-cultural populations, and scholars in this area have pointed to the individualistic nature of the concept and the absence of cultural factors in resilience research. These scholars call for a social-ecological view of resilience that incorporates multiple factors, including indigenous ideologies and systems of meaning-making. This article aims to add to the conversation surrounding the relationship between culture and resilience to psychological trauma. The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature in an effort to identify empirical articles that examined the relationship between culture, resilience, and psychological trauma. Across 3 academic databases and Google Scholar, the authors identified a total of 30 articles that empirically evaluated these variables between 2008 and 2018. Overall, research points to culturally specific values and community and social support to be facilitative of resilience in a range of trauma-exposed populations. The small number of articles is consistent with critiques regarding the absence of culture in empirical assessments of resilience, and discussion offers suggestions for future research. Overall, the review synthesizes the findings of these articles and offers implications for research and treatment of diverse trauma-exposed populations.

Differential Adaptation to Adversity: A Latent Profile Analysis of Youth Engagement With Resilience-Enabling Cultural Resources and Mental Health Outcomes in a Stressed Canadian and South African Community

“…The usefulness of these factors is culturally patterned and so typically not uniform across communities, even when the same instrument is used to measure them (Höltge, Theron, Cowden, Govender, van Rensburg, et al, 2021; Renbarger et al, 2020). Still, from a social-ecological perspective, values, beliefs, or practices associated with a culture-sharing group’s everyday ways-of-being and -doing—such as spirituality, religiosity, family tradition, and community tradition—have the potential to support youth resilience (Masten, 2014; Panter-Brick, 2015; Raghavan & Sandanapitchai, 2020). This potential, particularly for youth mental health, is explained next.…”

Impact of spirituality on resilience and coping during the COVID-19 crisis: A mixed-method approach investigating the impact on women

“…Scholars have also noted positive correlations between spirituality and resilience for individuals who suffer from physical illness, death of a loved one, man-made and natural disasters in addition to other disease outbreaks (Chua et al, 2019;Raghavan & Sandanapitchai, 2020;Wermelinger Avila et al, 2017;Wild et al, 2020). However, researchers have not looked at the roles of spirituality and resilience during a pandemic and while social connections are either restricted or nonexistent.…”

Psychological Resilience, Hope, and Adaptability as Protective Factors in Times of Crisis: A Study in Greek and Cypriot Society During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…In this respect, the individual is given the opportunity to highlight his/ her strong and dynamic elements, claim responsibility for him-herself and his feelings, and redefine his/her relationships in terms of security and respect (Fredrickson, 2009). According to Raghavan et al (2020), psychological resilience is not only based on the traits and abilities of the individual to handle crises but also on the interdependence of the person with his environment, i.e., the relationships he develops and maintains with important others in his life. Theory, practice, and research seem to conclude that the response to any stressful event will be significantly affected by the person's assessment of the situation, his ability to predict an effective way to address the challenges that the situation poses at the moment, as well as her ability to eventually integrate the experience in a positive way (Everly & Lating, 2013).…”