Resilience refers to an individual or group’s capacity to adjust to challenges, persevere in the face of hardship, pursue desired goals, or maintain a chosen course of action despite the presence of stressors that threaten to disrupt the status quo. The capacity to adapt to stressors is a universal experience across cultures. However, people and groups differ in the amount of psychological distress they experience in response to stressors as well as in the speed in which they are able to recover. Resilience is influenced by a dynamic interaction between internal and external risk and protective factors.

For the past two decades, researchers have debated whether resilience is best characterized as a personality trait, a process, or an outcome. Some consider resilience as a function ...

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