A clustered-randomized controlled trial of a self-reflection resilience-strengthening intervention and novel mediators

Stepping back or stepping in: A qualitative investigation of self-distanced versus self-immersed stressor reflections with competitive swimmers

High performance sport consists of stressor events which can disrupt an athletes' functioning and negatively influence performance. The way in which one reflects upon stressor events and develops insights regarding how they coped is essential to overcoming similar experiences in the future. We conducted a pilot randomised controlled trial with a qualitative analysis to explore the coping insights among 48 highly trained/national level swimmers in the lead up to major swimming competitions, who reflected on stressor events from self-distanced or self-immersed perspectives over a 3-week period. Using the self-reflection and coping insight framework as a guideline, we captured divers coping insights across both groups. Irrespective of the group to which they were assigned, athletes showed positive signs towards re-interpreting their stressor experience and embracing the stressor event, whereas consideration of individual values and adoption of a future-focus viewpoint were areas lacking. The emotionality described by athletes in their written reflections varied across both groups and influenced the development of coping insights. Our findings indicate a necessity to examine the emotionality associated with unique stressor events and consider integrating reflection strategies, while also enhancing the operational definitions within conceptual models of stress reflection protocols.

A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self-reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience

Evidence supports the effectiveness of self-reflective training approaches for the development of resilience. Building this work, the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the focus of coping self-reflective activities on resilience by applying a self-reflection approach to a sample of 254 Australian ministry workers. This randomized controlled trial included three attention-matched conditions: (1) self-reflective writing focused on successful coping, (2) self-reflective writing focused on unsuccessful coping or (3) written descriptions of stressor events alone. Participants were assessed across four time points: prior to, immediately post, 3-months, and 6-months after the intervention. Results demonstrated that self-reflective writing was more effective in enhancing perceived resilience than descriptive writing. Analyses also showed greater maintenance of beneficial effects in the successful self-reflection condition, compared to the unsuccessful condition. These findings support the use of self-reflection training to strengthen individuals' psychological resilience, particularly when focused on successful coping situations for those who initially experience more ruminative thought.

Digital interventions to promote psychological resilience: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Societies are exposed to major challenges at an increasing pace. This underscores the need for preventive measures such as resilience promotion that should be available in time and without access barriers. Our systematic review summarizes evidence on digital resilience interventions, which have the potential to meet these demands. We searched five databases for randomized-controlled trials in non-clinical adult populations. Primary outcomes were mental distress, positive mental health, and resilience factors. Multilevel meta-analyses were performed to compare intervention and control groups at post-intervention and follow-up assessments. We identified 101 studies comprising 20,010 participants. Meta-analyses showed small favorable effects on mental distress, SMD = -0.24, 95% CI [-0.31, -0.18], positive mental health, SMD = 0.27, 95% CI [0.13, 0.40], and resilience factors, SMD = 0.31, 95% CI [0.21, 0.41]. Among middle-aged samples, older age was associated with more beneficial effects at follow-up, and effects were smaller for active control groups. Effects were comparable to those of face-to-face interventions and underline the potential of digital resilience interventions to prepare for future challenges.

Enhancing resiliency and optimizing readiness in military personnel through psychological flexibility training: design and methodology of a randomized controlled trial

Background

Enhancing resiliency and optimizing readiness in military personnel is a high priority for the U.S. Department of Defense. Most military resiliency-enhancement programs are evidence-informed interventions. However, few randomized studies have demonstrated efficacy of any intervention or training program to enhance resiliency and prevent the development of psychological health symptoms in military personnel when exposed to operational stressors. This manuscript provides an overview of the theoretical foundation, research design, and research methods of a preventive intervention trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a training program to enhance resiliency and prevent psychological health symptoms in military personnel. The resiliency training intervention is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an evidence-based intervention with broad empirical support for improving functioning in those living with psychological and medical conditions.

Method/design

This study will evaluate the efficacy of a two-day training program based on ACT for fostering psychological flexibility, the central target in ACT, for enhancing resiliency, and for preventing the development of psychological health symptoms. The research participants will be a non-clinical population of active duty military personnel (N = 600). The ACT-based training program (n = 300) will be compared to a military resiliency training as usual, known as Master Resilience Training (n = 300). Assessment measures will be administered at the baseline assessment, after training, prior to a military deployment, and after returning from a deployment. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to provide feedback on the training program.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT05094115.

Tapping your inner psychotherapist: The effects of a growth writing for military cadets on mental health

Although growth writing has been verified to be effective in addressing psychological maladjustment through sequential shifts in emotion-processing strategies, there have been no further findings extending these preliminary observations to applications in the military field. This study aimed to investigate whether growth writing can serve as a novel intervention in enhancing the mental health of cadets. A total of 103 cadets (Sex ratio: 68.9% male, Age: 20.60± 2.16 years) participated in an 8-week writing program and were randomly assigned to either the growth writing group or the unstructured writing group. The growth writing group wrote structured narratives on the themes of exposure, devaluation, and benefit-finding for 30 minutes per week, focusing on the most stressful event in cadet lives. The unstructured writing group freely wrote about their feelings and thoughts regarding the most stressful event in cadet lives for 30 minutes every week. We found that growth writing resulted in greater benefits compared to unstructured writing, as indicated by a more significant reduction in stress, depression, anxiety, and anger, as well as a stronger increase in life satisfaction at the five-week follow-up. Moreover, significant changes were observed in stress, depression, anxiety, anger, and life satisfaction over the three assessment points among cadets in the growth writing group. Overall, the current findings highlight that the growth writing process can serve as a valuable form of self-psychotherapy for cadets who will face challenging battlefields in the future.

Promoting Positive Social Interactions: Recommendation for a Post-Pandemic School-Based Intervention for Social Anxiety

The purpose of this perspective article is to identify problematic behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend a school-based intervention (e.g., self-reflection, motivational interview, and workbook) to address post-COVID social anxiety among children and adolescents. The recommendations involve comparing students’ social interaction behaviors pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post-pandemic, and evaluating any behavioral changes in social relationships six months later. We also discuss the evaluation criteria and surveys used to assess the impact of the intervention on behavioral changes. Our evaluation criteria are based on students’ beliefs and abilities and aim to demonstrate that the intervention improves in-person social interactions and helps students adapt to the transition back to school. The proposed perspectives and strategies of the intervention can be modified to meet the needs of the researchers and professionals. By working together, global policymakers from the fields of education and public health can create school-based interventions that enhance students’ physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This program aims to mitigate the negative effects of school closures and social isolation and to broaden the role of schools in supporting students in the challenging post-pandemic world by addressing their holistic needs.

The coping insights evident through self-reflection on stressful military training events: Qualitative evidence from self-reflection journals

Research has demonstrated that adaptive forms of self-reflection on stressor events and insight may strengthen resilient capacities. However, the coping insights that emerge during self-reflection are notoriously under-researched. In this research, we sought to explore the evidence for the self-reflective activities and coping insights drawn from the Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework and find evidence of new reflections or insights not captured within the framework. Qualitative analysis was used to examine weekly, written self-reflective journals completed by Officer Cadets involved in a randomised-controlled trial of Self-Reflection Resilience Training. Sixty-eight Officer Cadets who submitted their journals for analysis were included. Journals were analysed using a deductive thematic approach. Findings revealed that self-reflective activities occurred frequently over the course of the intervention. Coping insights were comparatively less frequent, but conveyed complex ideas about the self in the context of stressor exposure, broad principles about stress and coping, and nuanced interpretations regarding the interaction between the efficacy of coping approaches and broader contextual and intrapersonal factors. These findings demonstrate the critical role of coping insight during Self-Reflection Resilience Training, with implications for developing a validated self-report measure of self-reflective activity and coping insight.

Stressor reflections, sleep, and psychological well-being: A pre-registered experimental test of self-distanced versus self-immersed reflections

Evidence supports the effectiveness of cuing people to analyse negative autobiographical experiences from self-distanced rather than self-immersed perspectives. However, the evidence on which this expectation resides is limited largely to static snapshots of mean levels of cognitive and emotional factors. Via a pre-registered, randomised controlled trial (N = 257), we examined the differential effectiveness of self-distanced relative to self-immersed reflections on mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration and quality as well as psychological well-being over a 5-day working week. Except for sleep quality, we found that reflecting from a psychologically distanced perspective, overall, was no more effective for mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration, well-being, and stress-related factors than when the current self is fully immersed in the experiential reality of the event. We consider several substantive and methodological considerations (e.g., dosage, salience of stressor event) that require interrogation in future research via experimental and longitudinal observational methods.

How self-reflection and resilience can affect pre-competition anxiety? Evidence from national competitive table tennis in adolescent players

Although previous studies have investigated pre-competition anxiety (PCA), the research examining how to promote the development of self-reflection and resilience in order to regulate PCA is limited. This study has three aims: to examine group differences age, gender, sport level, and exercise duration in (PCA), self-reflection and resilience; to test the relationships between PCA, self-reflection, and resilience; and to determine whether self-reflection and resilience can predict PCA. The included 82 male and 105 female adolescent Chinese table tennis player (ages 12–19). SPSS 25.0 software has used to drive ANOVA, Pearson correlations and regression analysis. The main result was that Pearson correlations demonstrated the strongest relationship between PCA, self-reflection, and resilience. The regression analysis model proved that self-insight predicted cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence; interpersonal assistance and emotional control predicted self-confidence; and emotional control predicted cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety. The result of this study were consistent with those of previous studies: there was a significant relationship between PCA, self-reflection and resilience when using the Chinese Adolescent Resilience Scale, and there were some differences in the test of group differences. However, this study uncovered new evidence that interpersonal assistance and emotional control can predict PCA. Further research should focus on cross-cultural differences in the process of cultivating athlete self-reflection and resilience.

The coping insights involved in strengthening resilience: The Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework

BACKGROUND

Recent theoretical work suggests that self-reflection on daily stressors and the efficacy of coping strategies and resources is beneficial for the enhancement of resilient capacities. However, coping insights emerging from self-reflection, and their relationship to resilient capacities, is an existing gap in our understanding.

OBJECTIVES

Given that insights come in many forms, the objective of this paper is to delineate exemplar coping insights that strengthen the capacity for resilience.

METHODS

After providing an overview of self-reflection and insight, we extend the Systematic Self-Reflection model of resilience strengthening by introducing the Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework to articulate how the emergence of coping insights may mediate the relationship between five self-reflective practices and the enhancement of resilient capacities.

RESULTS

We explore the potential for coping insights to convey complex ideas about the self in the context of stressor exposure, an awareness of response patterns to stressors, and principles about the nature of stress and coping across time and contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

This framework adds to existing scholarship by providing a characterization of how coping insight may strengthen resilient capacities, allowing for a guided exploration of coping insight during future research.