Cited by 2,968Resilience and Mental HealthPosttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchOptimism, Hope, and Well-being

Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives

Open access
Southwick, Steven M., Bonanno, George A., Masten, Ann S., Panter-Brick, Catherine, Yehuda, Rachel·2014·European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Abstract

In this paper, inspired by the plenary panel at the 2013 meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Dr. Steven Southwick (chair) and multidisciplinary panelists Drs. George Bonanno, Ann Masten, Catherine Panter-Brick, and Rachel Yehuda tackle some of the most pressing current questions in the field of resilience research including: (1) how do we define resilience, (2) what are the most important determinants of resilience, (3) how are new technologies informing the science of resilience, and (4) what are the most effective ways to enhance resilience? These multidisciplinary experts provide insight into these difficult questions, and although each of the panelists had a slightly different definition of resilience, most of the proposed definitions included a concept of healthy, adaptive, or integrated positive functioning over the passage of time in the aftermath of adversity. The panelists agreed that resilience is a complex construct and it may be defined differently in the context of individuals, families, organizations, societies, and cultures. With regard to the determinants of resilience, there was a consensus that the empirical study of this construct needs to be approached from a multiple level of analysis perspective that includes genetic, epigenetic, developmental, demographic, cultural, economic, and social variables. The empirical study of determinates of resilience will inform efforts made at fostering resilience, with the recognition that resilience may be enhanced on numerous levels (e.g., individual, family, community, culture).

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338

Cites

79 of 79 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Greater resilience serves as a protective mechanism against trauma-related disorders.

    “Empirical studies have shown that greater resilience serves as a protective mechanism against trauma-related disorders (19).”

    From Coping strategies and psychological outcomes following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes: a systematic review with meta-analytic synthesis (2026) · cites this paper as [19]

    The Discussion ('What are the most effective ways to enhance resilience?'; page unavailable) describes fostering resilience and allowing children's protective systems to emerge, which supports a general protective role. But the panel discourse ('Resilience may co-occur with PTSD'; page unavailable) says people with PTSD may be just as resilient as those without it. The paper does not establish the citing sentence's stronger claim that empirical studies have shown greater resilience to protect against trauma-related disorders. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Differences in measurement and conceptualization can generate variation in observed effect sizes even when the underlying constructs are theoretically related.

    “Such differences in measurement and conceptualization can generate variation in observed effect sizes even when the underlying constructs are theoretically related (19).”

    From Coping strategies and psychological outcomes following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes: a systematic review with meta-analytic synthesis (2026) · cites this paper as [19]

    In the Panel discourse section on contextual and cultural considerations (page unavailable), Dr. Masten says that choosing different criteria for adaptive function yields different understandings of which protective factors matter. This supports the general point that conceptualization affects findings, but the paper does not say that measurement differences generate variation in observed effect sizes for theoretically related constructs. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Resilience can be context-dependent, such that its definition varies across individuals, families, organizations, societies, and cultures.

    “Resilience can be context-dependent, such that its definition varies in the context of individuals, families, organizations, societies, and cultures (Southwick et al., 2014).”
  • Resilience is an important factor that enables individuals to adapt to and recover from emotionally, physically, and psychologically distressing situations and trauma.

    “Resilience has been identified as an important factor that enables individuals adapt to and recover from emotionally, physically, and psychologically distressing situations and trauma [17,20].”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 80 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R.
Affiliations
  • Yale University (US)
  • Columbia University (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • Department of Anthropology & Jackson Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
  • James J. Peters VA Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
Southwick, Steven M.
Venue
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Published
2014-10-01
Volume
5
Issue
1
ISSN
2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2000653311
Cited by
2,968
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 464 · 2025: 402 · 2024: 370 · 2023: 342 · 2022: 357 · 2021: 336 · 2020: 236 · 2019: 183 · 2018: 126 · 2017: 79 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
59.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Figshare (cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
Keywords
resilience, resilience definitions, determinants of resilience, multiple levels of analysis, epigenetics, genetic factors, developmental factors, cultural factors, economic factors, social factors, trauma, adversity, positive functioning, family resilience, community resilience, cultural resilience

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review