Abstract
The present study aims to fill a gap in the study of resilience to trauma by examining resilience in a culturally diverse population. Approximately 70% of adults across the globe experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, yet resilience is a common response trajectory. This pilot study explored reactions to trauma and psychological resilience in an international sample of trauma-exposed participants. Participants were recruited online using the Amazon Mechanical Turk software and after completing an informed consent, were determined eligible to participate if they endorsed experiencing at least one traumatic event. Eligible participants then completed The Stressful Life Events Questionnaire, Brief Resiliency Scale, Ego Resiliency Scale, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version, Brief Religious Coping Scale, and Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. The final sample included 200 trauma exposed adults from nineteen different countries worldwide, with a majority hailing from the United States, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Results revealed that Asian participants scored significantly higher on resilience scales and endorsed higher levels of spiritually focused coping than other subgroups. Multivariate analyses revealed that these differences in resilience remained significant even after controlling for sense of ethnic identity and spiritual coping, suggesting that there may be culturally specific predictors of resilience within the Asian subgroup. Understanding variations in resilience will aid in developing culturally tailored interventions and pursuing a strengths-based approach to recovery from trauma. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Highlights
Research indicates that approximately 70% of adults globally (Benjet et al, 2016) and 89.7% of adults in the United States (Kilpatrick et al, 2013) experience at least one traumatic event during their lifetimes
The present study aims to fill this gap by examining cultural contributors to resilience in a multinational sample of trauma survivors
Post hoc Games-Howell tests showed that participants who identified as Asian scored significantly higher on both resilience scales and on the positive religious coping scale in comparison to other participants
Summary
Research indicates that approximately 70% of adults globally (Benjet et al, 2016) and 89.7% of adults in the United States (Kilpatrick et al, 2013) experience at least one traumatic event during their lifetimes. The researchers theorized that social constructions and interpretations of trauma, informed by cultural views, could provide a valuable window into posttraumatic reactions Interview data supported their hypothesis: across eight respondents, researchers identified linguistic idioms of distress that described clusters of psychological and somatic reactions as well as methods of coping with their trauma exposure. They concluded that these culturally specific reactions to trauma did not map against standard Western diagnostic criteria but provided a window into their construction of resilience. We further anticipated that ethnicity would predict resilience scores even after accounting for the impact of ethnic identity and use of spiritual coping
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