Resilience in advanced cancer caregiving. A systematic review and meta-synthesis

Background: Close relatives provide much of the care to people with cancer. As resilience can shield family caregivers from mental health problems, there has been a burgeoning interest in resilience-promoting interventions. However, the evidence necessary for the development of these interventions is scant and unsynthesized. Aim: To create an overall picture of evidence on resilience in cancer caregiving by a theory-driven meta-synthesis. Design: In this systematically constructed review a thematic synthesis approach has been applied. The original findings were coded and structured deductively according to the theoretical framework. Consequently, the codes were organized inductively into themes and subthemes. Data sources: Through September 2019, five electronic databases were searched for qualitative studies on resilience in cancer caregiving. The search was extended by a supplementary hand search. Seventeen studies met the eligibility criteria. Results: The elements of resilience, as described in the pre-defined theoretical framework of Bonanno, are reflected in the lived experiences of family caregivers. The resilience process starts with the diagnosis of advanced cancer and may result in mental wellbeing, benefit finding, and personal growth. The process is influenced by context elements such as individual history, sociocultural background, caregiver characteristics, and the behavior of the supportive network. A repertoire of coping strategies that caregivers use throughout the caregiving process moderates the resilience process. Conclusion: This review and theoretical synthesis reveal key elements of resilience in the process of cancer caregiving, including influencing factors and outcomes. Implications and avenues for further research are discussed.

Navigating the Turbulent Time: A Qualitative Inquiry into Resilience among Vietnamese ESL Teachers during COVID-19

The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics of the resilience process among Vietnamese ESL (English as the Second Language) university teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study investigated the interactions between risk factors and protective factors at both personal and contextual levels that shape teachers' resilience patterns. Fifteen teachers from different stages of teaching career participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews in qualitative research design, and the collected data were analyzed by means of a two-cycle analysis procedure. Findings of the study revealed two major risk factors, including turbulence and ambiguity and decreasing autonomous motivation. Despite this, teachers drew on three primary resources to adapt to the abrupt changes: positive imaginaries about the future, sense of professionalism, and relational resources. Analysis showed that these protective factors were located across personal level and microsystems; however, there were missing links for protective resources at institutional level, mesosystems, and macrosystems. Taking cognizance of this, the study emphasizes the role of transparent policies and school leadership in bolstering teachers’ resilience in adversities.

A New Paradigm to Indicate Antidepressant Treatments

This article develops the idea that clinical depression can be seen as a typical human response, largely rooted in human culture, to events of loss or times of adversity. Various biological, psychological, and social factors may cause some individuals to have a depressive reaction that is ineffectually limited in time and/or severity. Recovery occurs mainly based on natural resilience mechanisms, which come into play spontaneously, but which are sometimes inhibited or blocked by specific pathological biopsychosocial mechanisms. One of the mechanisms for this could be the influence of the circuits that regulate pleasure and happiness, along the dorsal diencephalic connection (DDC) pathway from the forebrain to the midbrain via the habenula. Therapy works by undermining the biopsychosocial factors that prevent the natural recovery mechanism from working. Treatment should, therefore, be seen as facilitating rather than causing natural recovery. This approach is in line with the high recovery rate after placebo treatments and the positive influence of pharmacological treatments with completely different sites of action. Acceptance of this model means that when studying new treatments for depression, a new paradigm must be applied in which the relative value of antidepressant treatment is specifically weighted in terms of enabling the natural resilience process.

Neighborhood Collective Efficacy as a Culturally Responsive Resilience Process: A Longitudinal Study of African American Youth From Fragile Families

A reliance on informal supports and neighborhood relationships has its history within the African American community as a useful strategy for building and maintaining overall resilience. It is known that a history of systemic oppression gave rise to distinct cultural barriers to social services and resources, leading to a reliance on community to help foster success in the African American community. Thus, the notion of neighborhood collective efficacy (NCE) is assumed to be a valuable protective process to explore for African American youth. The current exploratory study utilizes multilevel growth curve modeling to examine the relationship between NCE and aspects of resilience over time. Findings reveal a significant, positive relationship and important implications for culturally responsive study and practice.

Digitalization Capabilities for Sustainable Cyber Resilience: A Conceptual Framework

Digital transformation is currently an essential condition for companies to operate in most markets, since it provides a whole new set of competitive skills and strategic tools. On the other hand, the same digitalization puts companies in the face of a whole new series of threats coming from the cyber space. The foundation of business sustainability, which is the maintenance of competitiveness while securing business, is no longer a “plus” feature or a captivating sentence but a true and consistent need for all organizations. This article provides a literature analysis on approaches and models for cyber resilience, digitalization capabilities, and a conceptual framework showing how digitalization capabilities drive cyber resilience. Digitalization capabilities are involved in the plan/prepare phase and in the adaptation phase of the cyber resilience process. In particular, online informational capabilities can drive both these phases. Other capabilities such as the employment of heterogeneous resources and the promotion of continuous learning drive the plan/prepare phase, while the scanning of the evolution of the digital environment and a timely reconfiguration of resources drive the adaptation phase.

The Frequent Stressor and Mental Health Monitoring-Paradigm: A Proposal for the Operationalization and Measurement of Resilience and the Identification of Resilience Processes in Longitudinal Observational Studies

Resilience has been defined as the maintenance or quick recovery of mental health during and after times of adversity. How to operationalize resilience and to determine the factors and processes that lead to good long-term mental health outcomes in stressor-exposed individuals is a matter of ongoing debate and of critical importance for the advancement of the field. One of the biggest challenges for implementing an outcome-based definition of resilience in longitudinal observational study designs lies in the fact that real-life adversity is usually unpredictable and that its substantial qualitative as well as temporal variability between subjects often precludes defining circumscribed time windows of inter-individually comparable stressor exposure relative to which the maintenance or recovery of mental health can be determined. To address this pertinent issue, we propose to frequently and regularly monitor stressor exposure (E) and mental health problems (P) throughout a study's observation period [Frequent Stressor and Mental Health Monitoring (FRESHMO)-paradigm]. On this basis, a subject's deviation at any single monitoring time point from the study sample's normative E–P relationship (the regression residual) can be used to calculate that subject's current mental health reactivity to stressor exposure (“stressor reactivity,” SR). The SR score takes into account the individual extent of experienced adversity and is comparable between and within subjects. Individual SR time courses across monitoring time points reflect intra-individual temporal variability in SR, where periods of under-reactivity (negative SR score) are associated with accumulation of fewer mental health problems than is normal for the sample. If FRESHMO is accompanied by regular measurement of potential resilience factors, temporal changes in resilience factors can be used to predict SR time courses. An increase in a resilience factor measurement explaining a lagged decrease in SR can then be considered to index a process of adaptation to stressor exposure that promotes a resilient outcome (an allostatic resilience process). This design principle allows resilience research to move beyond merely determining baseline predictors of resilience outcomes, which cannot inform about how individuals successfully adjust and adapt when confronted with adversity. Hence, FRESHMO plus regular resilience factor monitoring incorporates a dynamic-systems perspective into resilience research.

Collective Intelligence and Entrepreneurial Resilience in the Context of Covid-19

Research on the covid-19 pandemic, conducted to date, has clearly shown its negative impact on entrepreneurs. However, there are few relevant studies on the resilience of these entrepreneurs. Even economic stimulus packages developed by governments ignore collective intelligence, which is seen as an appropriate posture and path that can lead to the resilience of entrepreneurs in unpredictable situations. Thanks to the theoretical anchoring of collaborative management, we have developed and tested a conceptual model through the approach of deconstructing collective intelligence into (i) the sharing of capacities (ii) mutual aid (iii) collective competence and (iv) dynamic capacity. The data production was carried out through 15 semi-structured interviews and 282 surveys of Cameroonian and Chadian entrepreneurs. The results showed that mutual support (β = 0.32) and ability to share (β = 0.29) are indirectly the best predictors of economic and strategic entrepreneurial resilience. Because they participate effectively in building the collective competence of entrepreneurs in a context of crisis. This collective competence positively generates the level of variation in economic resilience (β = 0.38) and that of strategic resilience (β = 0.36). These results are the manifestation that covid-19 is boosting social dialogue between entrepreneurs. On the other hand, dynamic capacity appears less effective for the entrepreneurial economic resilience (β = 0.04) and strategic entrepreneurial resilience (β = 0.02) of the entrepreneurs studied due to the measures to combat covid-19. These findings contrast with previous research focused on entrepreneurial resilience through collective intelligence. They lead us to stress the importance of continuing research on the subject and to draw comparisons between entrepreneurs in crisis situations and those working in a stable ecosystem. The article is useful for researchers who find proven evidence that is more relevant. Then entrepreneurs will find new factors to make their entrepreneurial project viable. Finally, governments and their partners are urged to further promote entrepreneurship education based on dynamic capacity at the expense of confrontation and selfishness. Our article is part of the theory of collaborative management and organizational theory and reveals the existence of a relational contingency in the different stages of the entrepreneurial resilience process.

A qualitative study on the multi-level process of resilience development for adults recovering from eating disorders

Background Resilience research to date has been criticised for its consideration of resilience as a personal trait instead of a process, and for identifying individual factors related to resilience with no consideration of the ecological context. The overall aim of the current study was to explore the multi-level process through which adults recovering from EDs develop resilience, from the perspectives of clients and clinicians. The objective of this research was to outline the stages involved in the process of developing resilience, which might help to inform families and services in how best to support adults with EDs during their recovery. Method Thirty participants (15 clients; 15 clinicians) took part in semi-structured interviews, and responded to questions relating to factors associated with resilience. Using an inductive approach, data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results The overarching theme which described the process of developing resilience was ‘Bouncing back to being me’, which involved three stages: ‘Who am I without my ED?’, ‘My eating disorder does not define me’, and ‘I no longer need my eating disorder’. Twenty sub-themes were identified as being involved in this resilience process, thirteen of which required multi-level involvement. Conclusion This qualitative study provided a multi-level resilience framework for adults recovering from eating disorders, that is based on the experiences of adults with eating disorders and their treating clinicians. This framework provided empirical evidence that resilience is an ecological process involving an interaction between internal and external factors occurring between adults with eating disorder and their most immediate environments (i.e. family and social). Plain English summary Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder demonstrate high rates of symptom persistence across time and poor prognosis for a significant proportion of individuals affected by these disorders, including health complications and increased risk of mortality. Many researchers have attempted to explore how to improve recovery outcomes for this population. Eating disorder experts have emphasised the need to focus not only on the weight indicators and eating behaviours that sustain the eating disorder during recovery, but also on the psychological well-being of the person recovering. One way to achieve this is to focus on resilience, which was identified as a fundamental aspect of eating disorder recovery in previous research. This study conceptualises resilience as a dynamic process that is influenced not only at a personal level but also through the environment in which the person lives. This study gathered data from adults with eating disorders and their treating clinicians, to devise a framework for resilience development for adults recovering from eating disorders. The paper discussed ways in which these findings and the framework identified can be easily implemented in clinical practice to facilitate a better understanding of eating disorder resilience and to enhance recovery outcomes.

Organizational resilience process: integrated model of safety culture

Purpose The purpose of the study is to create substantial awareness for safety precautions and safety parameters to lessen occupational injuries and accidents. Utilization of safety culture phenomenon with its fundamental understanding has imperative consideration for safety compliance and participation behaviors. Thoughtful aim of this study is the extension of knowledge related to safety orientation particularly in primary health-care workforce. Design/methodology/approach Only slips and trips accounted for 40% of workplace injuries in nursing professionals. To identity, the data were collected through structured surveys from nursing professionals of public and private hospitals in Pakistan. To evaluate that data for current study, standardized regression coefficients (parameter estimation) with 95% confidence interval and 5,000 bootstrap samples were subjected. Confirmatory factor analysis was also used to measure the validity of study constructs. Findings The potential findings of present study have assured the presence of safety culture at workplace has potential to influences negative safety outcomes. In addition, safety compliance and safety participation as mediation paths would be the strengthening addition to safety model. These findings have extended the existing understanding of compliance and participation behaviors from single factor to two different constructs of safety orientation. This safety culture model offers an evidence-based approach to nursing practitioners and nursing managers with implications for nurse’s safety, education and training. Originality/value Occupational injuries and accidental happenings have adversely affecting the quality of care, patient’s recovery spam, satisfaction level and psychological health in care agents. This study has proposed a comprehensive model for understanding the mechanism of possible and reliable safety implications at health-care units. Prior knowledge has limitation to the inevitable effects of occupational injuries only rather than focusing on corrective actions against this phenomenon.