Resilience in the Face of Cancer: On the Importance of Defining and Studying Resilience as a Dynamic Process of Adaptation

Abstract

Resilience is defined as the maintenance or relatively quick recovery of mental health during and after adversity. Rather than focusing on psychopathology and its causes, resilience research aims to understand what protective mechanisms shield individuals against developing such disorders and translate these insights to improve psychosocial care. This resilience approach seems especially promising for the field of oncology because patients face stressor after stressor from diagnosis to survivorship. Helping patients to learn how they can best use the resources and abilities available to them can empower patients to handle subsequent stressors. In the past few decades, resilience has increasingly been considered as a dynamic process of adaptation. While researchers use this definition, resilience has not yet been studied as a dynamic process in the field of oncology. As a result, the potential of resilience research to gain insight into what helps protect cancer patients from developing psychopathology is limited. We discuss conceptual and methodological proposals to advance resilience research in oncology. Most importantly, we propose applying prospective longitudinal designs to capture the dynamic resilience process. By gaining insight in how cancer patients engage in protective factors, resilience research can come to its full potential and help prevent psychopathology.

Keywords: adaptive coping; cancer; ecological momentary assessment; emotion regulation; prospective longitudinal designs; psychological distress; qualitative research; resilience; social support.

Figure 1

The dynamic process of resilience entails the engagement with a protective factor in response to adversity. For example, the individual draws upon their social support network (protective factor) by asking for help in response to a stressor (resilience process). A complex interplay of different protective factors, the type and intensity of the adversity and the context in which the individual resides determine to what extent the individual can engage in the available protective factors and respond resiliently.