Positive appraisal style predicts long-term stress resilience and mediates the effect of a pro-resilience intervention
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Stress resilience is the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. Identifying factors that predict and promote good long-term mental health outcomes in stressor-exposed individuals is a first step towards developing more effective prevention programs. In two independent observational samples (N = 132, N = 1034), we find that a tendency to evaluate stressors in a realistic to slightly unrealistically positive fashion (positive appraisal style, PAS) is prospectively associated with resilient outcomes over several years. We also find that PAS is an integrative, proximal resilience factor that mediates the pro-resilience effects of other protective factors (e.g., social support). In an analysis of pre-specified exploratory outcomes of a randomized controlled trial comparing a behavioral intervention targeting a broad set of resilience factors against usual care in a sample of distressed healthcare workers (N = 232; trial registry: NCT04980326), we find that PAS is modifiable, with improvements in PAS mediating intervention-induced improvements in resilience. These results establish PAS as a proximal, plastic, and potentially causal resilience factor.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Papoula Petri-Romão, Roberto Mediavilla, Alexandra Restrepo-Henao, Lara MC Puhlmann, Matthias Zerban, Kira F. Ahrens, Corrado Barbui, Ulrike Basten, Carmen Bayón, Andrea Chmitorz, Mireia Felez-Nobrega, Bianca Kollmann, Klaus Lieb, David McDaid, Kerry R. McGreevy, Maria Melchior, Ainoa Muñoz-Sanjosé, Rebecca J. Neumann, A-La Park, Michael M. Plichta, Marianna Purgato, Andreas Reif, Charlotte Schenk, Anita Schick, Alexandra Sebastian, Marit Sijbrandij, Pierre Smith, Oliver Tüscher, Michèle Wessa, Anke B. Witteveen, Kenneth SL Yuen, Josep Maria Haro, José Luis Ayuso-Mateos, Raffael Kalisch
Institutions: Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad de Antioquia, Columbia University, Technische Universität Dresden, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital Frankfurt, University of Verona, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Central Institute of Mental Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, Inserm, Sorbonne Université, Institut Pierre Louis d‘Épidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Heidelberg University, Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim, Amsterdam Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Sciensano (Belgium), UCLouvain, Deutsches Zentrum für Psychische Gesundheit, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, German Cancer Research Center, University Medical Centre Mannheim, Universitat de Barcelona
Language: English
Topic: Resilience and Mental Health
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
Awards: G1878783312, Dynamic MOdelling of REsilience, G434337789, Neurobiologische Mechanismen der Resilienz und Identifikation von Risikogruppen, Improving the Preparedness of Health Systems to Reduce Mental Health and Psychosocial Concerns resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic, G816376308, G8617888920
OpenAlex ID: W4416470730