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. 2008 Dec;8(Suppl 1):S5–S13.

Table.

Public discussion and debate in journal special issue volumes or sections on resilience and related themes (1998–2008)

Journal (year) Title, Volume (pages) — Editor/s and Salient points of direct relevance to current African health research, policy, and practice (Ref)

  1. Journal of Social Issues (1998) Special Issue. Thriving: Broadening the Paradigm Beyond Illness to Health. Vol. 54 (237–425) — Issue Editors; Jeannette Ickovics and Crystal Park. Notes from the editors and 12 articles — three of which are most relevant.

    • Qualitative investigation and analysis enable researchers to hear and understand respondents' processes of meaning-making in context (Massey et al.);

    • Posttraumatic growth may be accompanied by “increased well-being, but distress and growth may also coexist. Degree of change produced by clinical intervention may be limited in scope, but there clearly are some ways in which the clinician may make growth more likely for the client.” Growth is beyond recovery from trauma; positive change occurring in several domains and may be largely “phenomenal” (Calhoun & Tedeschi);

    • Armenia (a small nation that survived against the odds) embodies resilience at the level of individual, nuclear and extended family, community and state on account of its unique cultural and geo-historical characteristics. Child-rearing practices which foster pride in ethnic identity, social cohesion and social support promote and sustain resilience among Armenians at home and in the Diaspora (Karakashian).

  2. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology (2000) Special Issue. Classical Sources of Human Strength: Revisiting an old home and Building a New One. Vol. 19 (1–160) — Guest Editors: Michael McCullough and C. Rick Snyder. Editorial introductory and post-script pieces, and 8 articles — two of which are most relevant.

    • Hope — goals, pathway and agency thoughts — a measurably positive correlate of health in those with life-threatening disease (Snyder);

    • Self-control (the ability to alter the self's own states and responses) a strength (a limited, renewable resource) that operates like a muscle that is depleted after use but can be renewed by regular excercise and rest (Baumeister & Exline).

  3. American Psychologist (2000) Special Issue. Positive Psychology. Vol. 55 (5–183) — Guest Editors: Martin E.P. Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Editorial and 15 articles - two of which are most relevant. 17 responses to this Volume were published a year later (2001), Vol. 56 (75–90) including the Editors' reply. More debate followed in 2005, sparked by one article.

    • ‘Mature adaptive defenses’, best investigated longitudinally as they develop cumulatively over the life course; and can be strengthened by increasing social support as well as health promoting behaviors (Vaillant);

    • ‘Positive illusions’ or ‘unrealistic optimism’ and finding meaning in life delay progress of life-threatening infection — e.g., HIV (Taylor et al).

  4. (2001) Section on Positive Psychology. Vol. 56 (216–238) - developed by Kennon M. Sheldon and Laura King. Editorial and 4 articles — two of which are most relevant.

    • Positive outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation or development. Resilience is ordinary and common, “Ordinary Magic” (Masten).

    • ‘Realistic optimism’ — tendency to remain positive based on what is known and accepting what is unknown or unknowable about the (challenging) environment; leniency — adoption of modest thresholds/expectations; hope and aspiration for positive experiences (Schneider).

  5. (2005) Debate in response to Bonanno's article (2004) presenting resilience as the absence of PTSD; and hardiness, self-enhancement, repressive coping, positive emotion and laughter as some of the pathways to resilient outcomes — 5 Comments and author's reply. Vol. 60 (261–265).

    • Hardiness is a pattern of attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge to turn stressors into opportunities for growth; measured by the 65-item HardiSurvey III-R (Maddi);

    • PTSD symptoms should not be relied on for measuring risk and resilience - subjective impact and internal distress are not synchronous with functional impact; functional resilience needs to be investigated longitudinally using multivariate qualitative and quantitative methods (Litz);

    • Equating resilience with absence of PTSD is flawed; Holistic studies including a wide spectrum of psychopathology, resilience and adversarial growth and optimal functioning (salutogenic models of health and well-being) are called for (Linley & Joseph);

    • Resilience includes a family of life course patterns and processes of successful adaptation despite adversity (Roisman);

    • Resilience is an innate human psychological immune capacity (Kelley);

    • Above points taken, but the formula resilience = absence of PTSD remained in use (see for instance Bonanno et at, 2006).

  6. Journal of Clinical Psychology (2002) Special Issue. A Second Generation of Resilience Research. Vol. 58 (229–321) — Guest Editor: Glenda Wilkes. Introduction and 7 articles — all relevant.

    • A resilient family is a social system with cohesiveness, flexibility, effective and protective communication and meaning-making processes in spite of risk (e.g., neighborhoods of poverty and violent crime); a call for social policies designed to reduce ecological risks and individual level clinical practice that believes in and facilitates family resilience (Patterson);

    • Resilience in children and youth is a continuum ranging from defensive, adaptive and resilient elements (Rak);

    • Resilience is the capacity to overcome exposure to identifiable risk such as child abuse. Abused children grew up to be non-abusive parents on their own - without any external intervention (Wilkes);

    • Resilience is a complex dynamic trajectory along a continuum; should be studied from the subjects' perspectives within which (within-group) variation is to be expected (Morrison et al.);

    • Resilient college students with learning disabilities acknowledged their disability and focused on positive events to create an “aura' of success for themselves (Miller);

    • School administrators (high school and middle school Principals and others) can be educated to foster and promote resilience (Bosworth & Earthman);

    • Resilience and resiliency inquiry metatheory charts the paradigm shift from pathogenic to salutogenic — postmodern/spiritual — multidisciplinary thought in three waves: resilience as a phenomenon; a process; energy and motivation to reintegrate resiliently (Richardson).

  7. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention (2002) Special Issue. Crisis Response, Debriefing, and Intervention in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001. Vol. 2 (1–104) — Editor: Albert Roberts. Editorial and 8 articles — three of which are most relevant.

    • Addition to the DSM-IV V code for uncomplicated post-traumatic stress responses would help to distinguish between normal human responses to traumatic events and PTSD (Roberts);

    • Educators and mental health service providers developed a participatory psychoeducational workshop including review and understanding of local resilience — adopted a competence-based instead of pathology-based approach to intervention (Underwood & Kalafat);

    • Post 9/11 mental health/debriefing services (in New York and Boston) tried to normalize reactions and promote social cohesion and support, resilience and self-empowerment (Miller).

  8. (2004) Section on Disaster Mental Health. Vo. 6: 130–170 — no editorial, 4 articles — one of which is most relevant.

    • Evidence from Oklahoma city (post 1995 bombing and post 9/11) indicated optimism and community psychological resilience. This does not discount the need for mental health prevention and support systems (Pfefferbaum et al.).

  9. Journal of Biosocial Science (2004) Special Issue. Mental Well-being in settings of “Complex Emergency”. Vol. 36 (381–491) — Guest Editor: Astier Almedom. Overview and 8 articles — four of which are most relevant.

    • Participatory research involving local and international academic and practitioner teams had positive therapeutic effect for Andean village communities in Peru (Snider et al.);

    • Combining anthropological/qualitative data with psychometric instruments is essential for investigating youth mental well-being and coping in Palestine (Lewando Hundt et al.);

    • Multi-dimensional diagnostic and plural healing systems operate among Mozambican refugees and South African host communities, calling for both clinical and social diagnostics (SASPI Team);

    • Social support of the right type, timing and level mitigates war-induced anxiety and mental distress in Eritrea, an ideal site for the study of resilience (Almedom);

  10. Journal of Loss and Trauma (2004) Special Issue. Risk and Resiliency Following Trauma and Traumatic Loss. Vol. 9 (1–111) — Guest Editor: Matt J. Gray. No editorial, 7 articles.

    • This collection of papers focused more on psychopathology, risk/vulnerability, PTSD and social dysfunction including ‘cultural trauma’ in Rwanda than on resiliency.

  11. Psychiatric Clinics of North America (2004) Special Issue. Disaster Psychiatry: A Closer Look. Vol. 27 (xi–602) — Guest Editors: Craig Katz and Anand Pandya. Preface and 12 articles — two of which are most relevant.

    • Controversy over PTSD diagnostics in international disaster settings acknowledged and culture-specific mental health service capacity building (e.g., Conselho model) advocated for (Barron);

    • Disaster-exposed populations including in New York post 9/11 are more resilient than imagined - based on their low rates of PTSD and indicators of functional stability — therefore low participation rates in [trauma] research may be expected (North).

  12. Substance Use & Misuse (2004) Special Issue. Resilience. Vol. 39 (657–854) — Guest Editors: Jeannette Johnson and Shelly Wiechelt. Introduction/Editorial, 6 articles, Selected Resources, Internet Resources and International Abstracts — three articles are most relevant.

    • Resilience is a complex and dynamic process involving the individual, the event and the environment; listing universal ‘resilience factors’ is not that helpful because the factors are context-dependent and ordinary/common (Johnson & Wiechelt);

    • Children of alcoholic parents followed up in a 30-year longitudinal study (in Kauai, Hawaii) who became ‘competent’ adult benefited from significantly larger sources of sustained support of caring adults than those with coping difficulties (Werner & Johnson);

    • Ethnic pride promotes resilience among native Hawaiians (Austin).

  13. Bulletin of the World Health Organization (2005) Round Table. Mental and social health during and after acute emergencies: emerging consensus? Vol. 83 (71–76) Lead article by WHO personnel with comments from two prominent social psychiatrists (academic-practitioners).

    • The lack of consensus on the public health value of the PTSD concept and the appropriateness of vertical trauma-focused services was acknowledged, and, social interventions and integrated services called for (van Ommeren et al.); Best therapy for acute stress is social - safety, family reunification, justice, employment, re-establishing systems of meaning (Silove); caution against “category fallacy” and assumptions that western (universal) interpretations will apply (Summerfield).

  14. Global Environmental Change (2006) Special Issue. Resilience, vulnerability, and adaptation: A cross-cutting theme of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. Vol. 16 (235–316) — Guest Editors: Marco Janssen and Elinor Ostrom. Foreword, editorial, and 6 articles including one with a bibliometric analysis of the published literature by citation and author/co-authorship links; and another with a scientific research agenda on the above cross-cutting themes.

    • The links between the human and ecosystem dynamic capacity to adapt to turbulent changes, re-organize and/or transform to continue functioning (Folke); the need for research and policy to move from vulnerability to resilience through ‘consilience’ (Adger) are elucidated.

    • The impact of Holling's seminal work (1973) on current conservation and sustainability discourse has been phenomenal, along with Ostrom's (1990) in terms of subsequent resilience research of direct relevance to policy and practice implications for adaptive governance of the commons.

  15. Ecology & Society (2008) Special Feature on Managing Surprises in Complex Systems: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Resilience. Vol. Guest Editors: Lance Gunderson and Patricia Longstaff 4 articles, three of which are most relevant.

    • While trust plays an important role in the effectiveness of communication of information needed to prepare for and cope with unpleasant ‘surprises’ in health and human security systems (such as pandemic flu, bioterrorism, or other disasters), ‘unwarranted confidence’ in one's own institutional and/or human capacity may reduce institutional resilience (Longstaff and Yang).

    • Human resilience as studied in developmental psychology has much in common with resilience science in ecology with particular reference to environmental catastrophes (Masten and Obradoviæ).

    • Socially cohesive social networks that sustain community resilience need to be structurally linked to macro-level resources and mechanisms to respond effectively to health and other emergencies. (Roderick and Roderick)