What Is Resilience?

Resilience refers to people’s ability to “bounce back” from adverse experiences and is characterized by the capacity to cope, recover and learn from them. Underpinning those behaviors are attitudes that support a mindset that is open to information and primed to succeed — specifically, a positive attitude and confidence in one’s abilities.

Research on resilience in individuals suggests that people follow one of a handful of trajectories in response to adversity

1. Low distress with minimal impact on functionality (Resilient)
2. Initially high distress followed by reduced levels of distress, or distress that initially increases and
   then decreases over time (Recovered)
3. Moderate initial distress that increases over time (Delayed)
4. Initial distress that does not decrease significantly over time (Chronic)