The COVID‐19 pandemic has placed considerable strain on healthcare workers showing high rates of stress and psychological health problems. Interventions are urgently needed to help healthcare workers perform under conditions of great risk and uncertainty. In particular, healthcare leadership is known to be critical to supporting healthcare workers to deal with an uncertain and distressing healthcare environment. This pilot study evaluated the impact of the R2 resilience program tailored for healthcare leaders working in a highly affected COVID‐19 area in Italy. Through two group cohorts, 21 healthcare leaders completed the intervention, with 17 participants providing pre‐ and post‐intervention assessment data. Sixty‐two staff members who benefitted from their coordinators' resilience‐focused leadership were also included in the study. Findings show that participation in R2 was associated with reduction in levels of perceived stress and burnout symptoms, and increases in rugged qualities, self‐efficacy and in social‐ecological resilience. Significant changes in rugged qualities, self‐efficacy and perceived stress were also detected in staff members. High rates of participants' program satisfaction have been detected. R2 is a promising intervention for healthcare professionals working in emergency settings designed to enhance the rugged qualities and resources required to deal with heightened exposure to stress.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the role of family resilience in the relationship between parents' psychological stress and their perceptions of children's emotional and behavioral symptoms during the COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy.Background: The COVID‐19 lockdown threatened the well‐being of parents, with a potentially cascading effect on children's adjustment. However, the negative impact of parents' stress on children's well‐being may be attenuated in resilient families.Method: During the Italian lockdown, an online survey was administered to 649 parents of at least one child aged between 5 and 17 years. Respondents completed the survey themselves and their child(ren). The Perceived Stress Scale, the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were administered to parents.Results: Results show that family resilience is a key mechanism in the association of parents' perceived stress with their perceptions of children's emotional symptoms, prosocial behavior, and hyperactivity and that only parents' marital status moderates this relationship.Conclusion: The intervening role of family resilience emphasizes the need to empower parents and families during the pandemic crisis.Implications: By strengthening family resilience, family resources maybe strengthened to meet new challenges more effectively.

The war in Ukraine significantly impacts the mental health and well-being of its youth. Like other communities affected by war, Ukraine’s youth are at risk of developing psychopathological symptoms, and there is a shortage of mental health and psychosocial support services to address this. Resilience-building initiatives present an alternative approach to supporting the well-being of young people by promoting protective processes to enhance the likelihood of positive development in the context of adversity. Emerging research findings suggest that young people themselves can serve as powerful facilitators of such initiatives with one another. Yet, evidence about culturally and contextually relevant protective processes is needed to guide such interventions, especially among young people experiencing the war and working to boost resilience within their communities. In this study, we identified key protective processes Ukrainian youth depend on as they adapt to the conflict while also preparing to implement a resilience-building intervention as a facilitator. Through thematic analysis of transcripts of three training sessions with Ukrainian youth (n = 15, 100% female; aged 18–22), we identified the following themes: positive thinking, sense of control, emotion awareness and regulation, close personal relationships, and community support. Findings also highlighted the cultural and contextual nuance of these protective processes, as well as individual differences in the ways they co-occurred and manifested within each youth. Results have implications for developing tailored yet flexible resilience-building interventions that can be delivered by lay people, including youth with their peers, in Ukraine and other cultures and contexts.

This article describes a model for training service providers to provide interventions that build resilience among individuals who have experienced adversity. The Tutor of Resilience model emphasizes two distinct dimensions to training: (1) transforming service providers' perceptions of intervention beneficiaries by highlighting their strengths and capacity for healing; and (2) flexibly building contextually and culturally specific interventions through a five-phase model of program development and implementation. Tutor of Resilience has been employed successfully with child and youth populations under stress in humanitarian settings where mental health and psychosocial support professionals are required to design and deliver interventions that enhance resilience among vulnerable children.