Advances in Resilience Psychology: Cultural and Community Contexts—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Resilience involves responding to challenges in ways that foster adaptation and coping. Important early resilience research explored individual traits that were found to contribute to building resilience. Recent research in resilience has built upon these findings to explore how sociocultural contexts support resilience (Clauss-Ehlers, 2006, 2008; Clauss-Ehlers & Weist, 2004). This research examines how larger systems can contribute to people overcoming hardships. For instance, how do communities, policies, schools and families contribute to building resilience, both in individuals and within larger sociocultural contexts? Cultural and community resilience are two areas of this research field that have explored how cultural and community values can enhance coping and adaptability to challenges (Clauss-Ehlers, 2006, 2008; Clauss-Ehlers & Weist, 2004).

The first edition of this Special Issue received strong interest from the research community, reflecting the growing demand for work in this area. To continue addressing these critical questions, we are pleased to launch a second edition, Advances in Resilience Psychology: Cultural and Community Contexts.

Understanding how to build resilience in cultural and community contexts is important and timely, given the impact of current global stressors and crises. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2022) indicates that, in just the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a 25% global increase in depression and anxiety. Current research addresses the long-term impact of the pandemic. For instance, a recent study found that enduring anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic may have an impact on identity development among college students (Mitova, et al., 2026). In another example of global stressors, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 123.2 million people were forcibly displaced across the globe at the end of 2024 (UNHCR, 2025). The UNHCR (2025) states that the number of people who have been forcibly displaced has almost doubled in the past decade.

These staggering realities have mental health implications for individuals and communities, such as a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety, trauma, social isolation, social anxiety, substance-use disorders, loss, poverty and a lack of support. Moreover, along with the exponential necessity for mental health services, nations continue to struggle to organize mental health service structures to meet their accompanying needs. This heightened demand, alongside a lack of infrastructure, underscores a call for greater cultural and community resilience interventions, psychosocial support and policies that provide access to and awareness of mental health services among diverse communities across the world.

This second Special Issue on Advances in Resilience Psychology: Cultural and Community Contexts is committed to exploring community-based interventions, government programs, therapeutic techniques, teaching approaches, outreach, advocacy, education, social media considerations, school-based support and community/governmental partnerships that can strengthen resilience from a broad sociocultural, community-based perspective. In so doing, this second Special Issue seeks to address the complex global problems related to levels of resilience, including, but not limited to, poverty, trauma, immigration, forced displacement, healthcare/mental healthcare access, government reform, disempowerment, advocacy, prevention efforts, public policy and freedom. Some questions for reflection when you consider submitting your work to the second Special Issue on Advances in Resilience Psychology: Cultural and Community Contexts include:

• How can governments implement programs that support a mental health infrastructure? How will we know that these programs are effective?
• What local policies and programs are needed to support the mental health needs of community members? How can we ensure that community members are aware of the available programs and supports?
• What are some examples of partnerships between mental health professionals and healthcare professionals that promote mental health intervention and prevention?
• How can outreach and advocacy promote resilience on both individual and community levels?
• How can communities and governments build multiculturally responsive interventions that meet the mental health needs of diverse populations?
• What treatment advances are needed to foster resilience and produce positive mental health outcomes?
• What mental health issues do we need more research on? What are the best practices related to this newer understanding?
• What empirically based community-based services are shown to be effective?
• How can we reduce stigma to support access and utilization of mental health services?

The call for the second Special Issue on Advances in Resilience Psychology: Cultural and Community Contexts seeks to publish diverse methodologies and ways of generating knowledge that include qualitative studies, quantitative studies, literature reviews, analyses of public programs and policies, narrative accounts, teaching approaches, case studies, clinical trials and meta-analyses, among other approaches.

References

Clauss-Ehlers, C.S., Yang, Y.T., & Chen, W.J. (2006). Resilience from childhood stressors: The role of cultural resilience, ethnic identity, and gender identity. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 5, 124-138. https://doi.org/10.2513/s15289168jicap0501_7

Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. (2008). Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(3), 197-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.02.004

Clauss-Ehlers, C.S., & Weist, M.D. (Eds., 2004). Community planning to foster resilience in children. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Mitova, E., Negron, E. Z., Bratek, L., Leong, A., & Berman, S. L. (2026). The long-term effects of COVID-19 stress on mental health and identity among college students. Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 16(1), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16010069

World Health Organization (2022, March 2). COVID-19 pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide: Wake-up call to all countries to step up mental health services and support. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-COVID-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2025, June 12). Global trends. https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends

Prof. Dr. Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
Guest Editor

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• cultural resilience
• community resilience
• strength-based approach
• multicultural responsiveness
• cross-cultural counseling
• resilience-based interventions
• trauma-informed care
• public policy
• advocacy
• government support