Abstract

Resilience is the ability to spring back in the face of adversity. It is an important concept for health care professions as we strive to assist individuals to meet the challenges of living with illness and stress. The purpose of this study was to clarify the defining attributes of resilience and to facilitate to use the concept in practice, research, and education of health and social science. By Walker and Avant (1983)'s strategies for concept analysis, the concept of resilience finally analyzed as "a combination of abilities and characteristics that interact dynamically to allow an individuals to bounce back and cope successfully in spite of significant stress or adversity." The critical attributes of resilience were determined intra-personal and environmental factors. (1) Intra-personal factors are divided into dispositional, relational, and cognitive dimension. In dispositional attributes, there are positive self-esteem, sense of control, optimism, hardiness, autonomy, flexibility. In relational attributes, there are communication skills, ability to develop attachment relationships, and prosocial attitude. In cognitive attributes, there are positive appraisal and coping strategies, problem-solving skills, positive outlook and belief, and hope. (2) Environmental factors include social support of family, relatives, friends and community. The antecedent to the development of resilience would be adversity itself. Consequences of resilience are positive outcomes from adversity. We need to understand the concept of resilience clearly, to examine protective factors in high risk population, and to continue research to identify interactive process between the factors. (Korean J Str Res 2005;13:9∼18)

• Keywords: Resilience, Stress, Adaptation