Editorial: Individual and organizational vulnerability and resilience factors in the COVID-19 pandemic

Resumen de los autores

In the beginning the psychological concepts of vulnerability and resilience have been conceptualized as opposing characteristics of individuals. In more recent research vulnerabilities and resilience factors have been treated as characteristics that may be individual, social or organizational (see for example Paton et al., 2001). Furthermore, an individual, group or organization may be characterized by different vulnerability and resilience factors at the same time. Research has also shown that vulnerability is not defined by one characteristic alone because intersectionality is often the care (Ryder & Boone, 2019).One example for intersectionality is that women are more vulnerable in the Covid 19 pandemic. This finding is important but studies from an intersectional perspective show the additional predictive value of socioeconomic factors, cultural factors and the type of occupation may define how vulnerable or how resilient women can be in a certain social environment (see for example Fordham, 1999). A high number of studies on Covid 19 vulnerabilities show the necessity to focus also on the resilience factors that often accompany potential vulnerabilities. Recent literature about Covid 19 has emphasized specific individual and organizational as well as systemic vulnerabilities that may be characteristic in all pandemics. The same applies for risk factors. The Covid 19 pandemic gives us a chance to further broaden our knowledge about vulnerability and resilience aspects on all levels (individual, social, organizational). For this we need an interdisciplinary and multimethod approach. This has been reached in the given situation because Covid 19 has promoted cooperation and networking between scientists from distant disciplines and origins. With this in mind we collected articles from different disciplinary perspectives: medicine, science, social sciences, public health. Our preferred focus was on mixed method approaches. By analysing resilience and vulnerability from different angles and on different levels we wanted to gain new insights into the topics. The following collection of articles gives an overview over different target groups, countries and different perspectives on vulnerability and resilience factors during the pandemic. Some articles focus on groups that have been emerged as vulnerable during the pandemic like young adults , women and the healthcare and social sector (Riedel et al., 2022a;Riedel et al., 2022b). Other articles focus more on the concept of resilience and the factors enabling resilience on each of the above-mentioned levels. As the studies in this research topic show, resilience plays an important role in emergent adulthood. The authors Fu, H., and Wang, B. (2022) have shown that for young adults' risk perception of COVID-19 can predict anxiety symptoms. They also showed that quality of life influences both risk perception of COVID-19 and anxiety as a mediator. Resilience on the other hand seems to buffer these effects. A high individual resilience score reduces the effect of risk perception on anxiety. Individual resilience was measured using the CD-RISC by Connor and Davidson (2003). The scale includes five factors: (1) notion of personal competence, high standards and tenacity, (2) trust in one's instincts, tolerance of negative affect, and strengthening effects of stress, (3) positive acceptance of change, and secure relationships, (4) control, and (5) spiritual influences. From these findings the authors conclude that risk communication plays an important role in anxiety management in young adults. At the same time the focus should be on resilience building and quality of life. Regarding social resources in young adults found that Covid 19 measures heavily influenced young adult´s friendships. They experienced major challenges in building new relationships and had difficulties in successfully maintaining existing friendships. As a result, social support by friends diminished, which led to a lack of social resources and loss of resilience. This longitudinal mixed method study could show that the pandemic measures had significant negative effects on friendships for university students. Talić et al. (2022) analysed resilience and vulnerability factors in students of a military University. Their study investigated individual personality traits (for example extraversion, neuroticism) as well as organizational resilience factors (for example commitment to the organization and satisfaction with study). Furthermore, the researchers investigated health related factors (for example loneliness, quality of life, COVID-19-related stress). Coping strategies were also measured. The authors assumed that coping style would have an influence on stress and psychological wellbeing. The results showed that resilience factors could not predict change in wellbeing over time. But the researchers found some evidence for mediation effects of more active coping styles and the use of social support. Organizational resilience factors plaid a role togethers with personality traits for the wellbeing of the students. Park et al. (2022) used the concept of psychological capital (PsyCap) as a trait influencing both sport community involvement and life satisfaction in Generation Z. Furthermore, the authors referred to the stress process model. Results showed distress modulated the mediation effect of PsyCap especially in Generation Z (Gen Z). Results also showed vulnerability of global sport communities and Gen Z to COVID-19. The authors concluded that support in stress management is of utmost importance for sports fans´ community involvement and life satisfaction. Gen Z were more distressed during the pandemic than other participants. Successful stress management was an important prerequisite for the use of community involvement to promote positive resources. Li and Zhu (2022) could show in a Chinese student population that psychological stress had an influence on the students´ sense of

Áreas y palabras clave

Cómo citar (APA 7)

Juen, B., Kern, E. M., & Thormar, S. B. (2023). Editorial: Individual and organizational vulnerability and resilience factors in the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1216698