Definition and operationalization of resilience in qualitative health literature: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Resilience is a burgeoning focus in health research; yet, researchers have varying conceptual and methodological approaches to understanding resilience across populations. Consequently, there is little consensus on the definition or operationalization of resilience. The objective of the present study was to conduct a scoping review of qualitative health research from the United States to connect methodological approaches with operationalization and definitions. From our initial database search of 2,142 articles, we reviewed 29 articles that met the criteria for assessment. Our review revealed: (1) definitions of resilience followed two main pathways pursuing broad or context-specific definitions and (2) operationalization originated from previous research or developed during data collection and/or analysis using emic approaches. We offer a conceptual mapping of resilience and argue that researchers should attend to the emergence of resilience in their study population and give greater consideration to the implications of methodologies for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• methodology
• scoping review
• definition
• operationalization

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Notes on contributors

Jessamyn Bowling

Dr. Jessamyn Bowling, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research focuses on resilience and sexual health among marginalized populations, including sexual and gender minority populations. Jessamyn is interested in how individuals perceive resilience and sexual health in order to improve research and its translation. She uses qualitative and mixed methodologies, including the use of photography. Jessamyn’s work has been published in PLoS ONE, Archives of Sexual Behavior, LGBT Health, among others.

Kendra Jason

Dr. Kendra Jason is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is an interdisciplinary health disparities scholar who examines the multi-level factors that may influence the relationship between health and desired workforce participation for older Black workers. She seeks to identify contributing factors to health disparities by analyzing the links between race, discrimination, workforce behaviors, and resilience. Her research on these issues are published in The Gerontologist, Journal of Applied Gerontology, Healthcare Management Review, and Research in the Sociology of Work. Most recently, her work was featured on Forbes.com and PBS Next Avenue.

Lisa M. Krinner

Dr. Lisa Maria Krinner, MSc, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research focuses on childhood adversity and other psychological traumas, and how we can successfully cope with stress and build resilience. The goal of her dissertation is the conceptual refinement of adverse childhood experiences as they relate to different later-life health outcomes. She has also conducted research on health behaviors related to chronic disease self-care management, physical activity, and mental health.

Chloe M.C. Vercruysse

Chloe Marguerite Clementine Vercruysse, MBA, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research focuses on stressful life experiences, specifically housing instability, and homelessness, to influence health in vulnerable groups and the role of resilience to act as a buffer in this context. Her dissertation research borrows a multifaceted approach to the examination of health upon housing after long-term homelessness by investigating the role of housing type, neighborhood, and programmatic factors to affect mental health outcomes among formerly chronically homeless adults, and the potential role of community integration in these relationships.

Gabrielle Reichard

Gabrielle Reichard is a second year master’s student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She plans to finish her degree in the spring of 2021 with her thesis titled, ‘Identity Appeals During 2020 National Conventions’. Here she focused on the relationship between political parties and appeals they make to voters by appealing to their social identity. Her research interests include political sociology, inequality, and social movements.