The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a major societal disruption, raising the question of how people can maintain or quickly regain their mental health (i.e., be resilient) during such times. Researchers have used the pandemic as a use case for studying resilience in response to a global, synchronously starting, and chronic set of stressors on the individual and societal level. Our review of this recent literature reveals that mental distress trajectories during the pandemic largely resemble mental distress responses to individual-level macro-stressors, except for a lower prevalence of recovery trajectories. Results suggest more resilient responses in older adults, but trajectories are less consistent for younger and older ages compared with middle-aged adults. We call for more research integrating state-of-the-art operationalizations of resilience and using these to study resilience over the lifespan.

Background: Antonovsky’s concept of sense of coherence (SOC) – as a global orientation reflecting an individual’s feeling of confidence in both the predictability of their internal and external environment and their ability to cope with stressful and challenging situations in life – shows a negative association with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. However, single studies varying in study characteristics provide heterogeneous effect size estimations. Objective: The purpose of the current study is to investigate the relationship between SOC and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity for the first time on a meta-analytical level. Method: The random-effects meta-analysis is based on zero-order correlations (r) and consists of 47 independent samples out of 45 studies (N = 10,883). Results: After correcting for sampling error, the mean correlation between SOC and PTSD symptoms was M(r) = −.41 (excluding four outliers: −.39). However, this effect could not be generalized to all types of PTSD samples owing to substantial remaining heterogeneity. Subsequent moderator analyses investigating the influence of different SOC and PTSD measures, trauma type and duration, mean age and gender imbalances per sample did not reveal significant moderating effects. Conclusions: The meta-analysis reveals a substantial correlation between SOC and PTSD symptom severity: higher SOC levels are associated with lower symptom severity. Thus, future research should progress to the question of whether the relationship between SOC and post-traumatic stress is causal, and by which factors it is moderated. Abbreviations: CD, Cook’s distance; DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; (G)RR, general (and specific) resistance resources; IES(-R), Impact of Event Scale (Revised); PDS, Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale; PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; SDR, standard deleted residual; SOC, sense of coherence; SOC-R, Sense of Coherence Scale – Revised

Societies are exposed to major challenges at an increasing pace. This underscores the need for preventive measures such as resilience promotion that should be available in time and without access barriers. Our systematic review summarizes evidence on digital resilience interventions, which have the potential to meet these demands. We searched five databases for randomized-controlled trials in non-clinical adult populations. Primary outcomes were mental distress, positive mental health, and resilience factors. Multilevel meta-analyses were performed to compare intervention and control groups at post-intervention and follow-up assessments. We identified 101 studies comprising 20,010 participants. Meta-analyses showed small favorable effects on mental distress, SMD = –0.24, 95% CI [–0.31, –0.18], positive mental health, SMD = 0.27, 95% CI [0.13, 0.40], and resilience factors, SMD = 0.31, 95% CI [0.21, 0.41]. Among middle-aged samples, older age was associated with more beneficial effects at follow-up, and effects were smaller for active control groups. Effects were comparable to those of face-to-face interventions and underline the potential of digital resilience interventions to prepare for future challenges.

Climate change, COVID-19, and the Russia-Ukraine War are some of the great challenges of our time. These global crises affect young people in a particularly vulnerable phase of their lives. The current study aimed to assess the impact of these crises on mental health (depression, anxiety, and health-related quality of life) in secondary school students in Germany. Furthermore, we assessed known predictors of mental health, such as socio-economic factors, individual life stressors, and resilience factors (self-efficacy, expressive flexibility) as covariates. In our sample of 3998 pupils, pandemic- and climate-related distress were linked to greater depression and anxiety and reduced health-related quality of life. War-related distress was associated with greater anxiety. Critically, these associations remained significant after controlling for all covariates, supporting the incremental predictive value of the crises measures. The study reveals a significant impact of the crises on the mental health of the current generation of adolescents. As such it suggests that mental health policies should include interventions that help youth to cope with the stress caused by the crises.

Societal challenges put public mental health at risk and result in a growing interest in resilience as trajectories of good mental health during stressor exposure. Resilience factors represent multilevel psychosocial resources that increase the likelihood of resilient responses. This preregistered systematic review aims at summarizing evidence on the predictive value of individual, social and societal resilience factors for resilient responses to societal challenges and crises. Eligible studies examined the predictive value of resilience factors in stressor-exposed populations in high-income countries by means of multinomial regression models based on growth mixture modeling. Five databases were searched until August 2, 2023. Data synthesis employed a rating scheme to assess the incremental predictive value of resilience factors beyond sociodemographic variables and other resilience factors. An adapted version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for risk of bias assessment. Fifty studies (sample sizes: 360–65,818 participants) with moderate study quality reported on various stressors (e.g., pandemics, natural disasters, terrorist attacks). Higher income, socioeconomic status and perceived social support, better emotion regulation and psychological flexibility were related to more resilient responses. The association between resilience factors and resilient responses was stronger in samples with younger mean age and a larger proportion of women. Most studies used non-representative convenience samples and effects were smaller when accounting for sociodemographic variables and other resilience factors. For many factors, findings were mixed, supporting the importance of the fit between resilience factors and situational demands. Research into social and societal resilience factors and multilevel resilience interventions is needed. Preregistration-ID: 10.17605/OSF.IO/GWJVA. Funding source: Robert Koch Institute (ID: LIR_2023_01).