Perspectives on Self-Reported Resilience - Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal and Meta-Analytical Considerations

Resilience may describe a personality trait, an outcome - meaning the absence of psychopathological symptoms - or an active process of adaption. The current thesis comprises five studies concerning trait-resilience and other resilience-related, health-benefitting factors including sense of coherence (SOC), the key component of the salutogenesis framework. Study 1 investigated the relationship between SOC and posttraumatic stress symptoms using meta-analytical methods. Findings based on predominantly cross-sectional studies demonstrated a robust relationship between SOC and psychopathological symptoms, M(r) = -.41, indicating that a stronger SOC is related to less severe symptoms. Two field studies (Studies 2 and 3) assessed this relationship in occupations at risk for trauma and investigated the potential overlap between different health-benefitting concepts. Both studies identified SOC as the most important correlate of psychopathological symptoms, whereas other concepts (i.e., trait-resilience and locus of control) were less important. Study 4 used a longitudinal design and found that higher pre-treatment SOC levels were predictive of better treatment outcomes. A comprehensive meta-analytical project (Study 5) investigated the bivariate relationships between different health-benefitting factors and posttraumatic stress symptoms. SOC was identified as the most important correlate, while other health-benefitting factors (i.e., trait-resilience/hardiness, locus of control/sense of mastery, self-efficacy, dispositional optimism, and openness to experience) did not show incremental validity beyond SOC using meta-analytical regression models. Thus, the results of the current thesis underline the importance of SOC as a correlate of psychopathological symptoms as well as the strong need for longitudinal research allowing for an empirical test of the salutogenesis model. ; Resilienz kann sowohl als Persönlichkeitsmerkmal, als Ergebnis – im Sinne der Abwesenheit von Symptomen – als auch als aktiver Prozess verstanden ...