6 Predictors of Resilience: Why Some Individuals Bounce Back with Vigor from Adversities

With resilience promoted as a must-have skill set, individuals are bombarded with various pop-psychology iterations of what is needed to bounce back from daily setbacks, acute adversities, or chronic stressors. However, there is no proven pathway to resilience, and we don't know why some individuals are more resilient than others. The best one can gather from research are the predictors of resilience. The salient predictors of resilience include the following:

1. Demographic predictors: Contrary to the popular notion that older adults are at greater risk following a potentially traumatic event, research suggests that older adults suffer relatively lower psychological costs than younger adults. In addition, the male gender is a consistent predictor of resilience in numerous studies, with the possible explanation being that women tend to experience more significant initial threats during a traumatic event subjectively (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013).

2. Personality predictors: One personality trait that buffers against potentially traumatic events is self-enhancement. Simply put, it refers to the inherent tendencies of some individuals to make extremely positive evaluations of themselves (Gupta & Bonanno, 2010). When people go through difficult times, their positive views about themselves or the world may be challenged, making them feel weak and vulnerable. In this context, self-enhancers may find protecting or restoring a positive sense of self easier. Self-enhancement, however, comes with a cost. While self-enhancers tend to enjoy greater self-esteem and positive emotions, overuse of this trait can border on narcissism and can be off-putting. Another personal characteristic that fosters resilience is optimism. 

3. Positive emotions: Research on the impact of resilience and emotions suggests that positive emotions such as interest, joy, hope, pride, and contentment correlate with one’s tendency to be resilient (Fredrickson et al., 2003). These emotions buffer against depression and promote thriving following a stressful situation. It is hypothesized that positive emotions enhance problem-solving and lead to effective coping by broadening one’s physical, social, intellectual, and psychological resources.

4. Appraisal of a stressful event: How people interpret or appraise a stressful event influences its impact and long-term consequences (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Individuals who view a stressful event as a challenge that can be overcome have better outcomes than those who view it as a threat that will most likely lead to negative consequences (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013). For example, an individual going through a divorce might appraise it as a devastating event or alternatively view it as painful but, at the same time, an opportunity for a healthier future relationship. A caveat here is that reappraisal increases resilience more in relatively uncontrollable adversity than in controllable situations. This is because reframing a controllable situation more positively can decrease motivation to take direct action to change it (Troy et al., 2023). 

5. Coping flexibility: Individuals differ in their ability to modify coping strategies in response to the demands of a stressful situation. Those with a flexible coping style can use feedback from their initial coping efforts to revise their interpretation of a stressful event and adjust their coping accordingly (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997). For example, one may deal with a minor problem with little effort and expend more effort when a problem is more significant. If the situation becomes insurmountable, one must also be able to withstand the consequences of failure and conserve resources. 

6. Emotional flexibility: Emotional flexibility, the ability to enhance or suppress emotional expression, also predicts resilience (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013). Research shows that suppressing one's emotional response, also known as expressive suppression, is not only ineffective at reducing negative emotions but also prevents one from experiencing positive emotions (Troy et al., 2023). However, how one expresses emotions in adversity also depends on one's culture, and evidence suggests that suppression of emotional expression has a more detrimental effect on resilience in Western versus Eastern cultural values (Hu et al., 2014).

No single predictor of resilience has a dominant effect, and some (gender and personality) are stable, while others can change over time. Given that adversity is unavoidable, knowing what explains resilience offers a person some hope to work on the modifiable predictors that foster resilience.

Check out Dr. Duggal's Author Page to learn more about evidence-based self-management techniques that promote mental health and well-being.

HARPREET S. DUGGAL, MD, FAPA

REFERENCES

Aspinwall, L. G., & Taylor, S. E. (1997). A stitch in time: self-regulation and proactive coping. Psychological Bulletin, 121(3), 417-436.

Bonanno, G. A., & Diminich, E. D. (2013). Annual research review: positive adjustment to adversity – trajectories of minimal-impact resilience and emergent resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(4), 378-401.

Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M., Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. R. (2003). What good are positive emotions in crises? A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 365-376.

Gupta, S., & Bonanno, G. A. (2010). Trait self-enhancement as a buffer against potentially traumatic events: a prospective study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2(2), 83-92.

Hu, T., Zhang, D., Wang, J., Mistry, R., Ran, G., & Wang, X. (2014). Relation between emotion regulation and mental health: A meta-analysis review. Psychological Reports, 114(2), 341-362.

Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York, NY: Springer.

Troy, A. S. Willroth, E. C., Shallcross, A. J., Giuliani, N. R., Gross, J. J., & Mauss, I. B. (2023). Psychological resilience: An affect-regulation framework. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 547-576.