The Relationship Between Cultural Variables and Resilience to Psychological Trauma: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The construct of resilience has been of interest to social scientists for several decades, with a range of definitions describing traits, contexts, and processes of growth. Research with trauma-exposed populations suggests that resilience is a common trajectory, but the mechanisms that facilitate resilience are not entirely clear. This is especially the case with cross-cultural populations, and scholars in this area have pointed to the individualistic nature of the concept and the absence of cultural factors in resilience research. These scholars call for a social-ecological view of resilience that incorporates multiple factors, including indigenous ideologies and systems of meaning-making. This article aims to add to the conversation surrounding the relationship between culture and resilience to psychological trauma. The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature in an effort to identify empirical articles that examined the relationship between culture, resilience, and psychological trauma. Across 3 academic databases and Google Scholar, the authors identified a total of 30 articles that empirically evaluated these variables between 2008 and 2018. Overall, research points to culturally specific values and community and social support to be facilitative of resilience in a range of trauma-exposed populations. The small number of articles is consistent with critiques regarding the absence of culture in empirical assessments of resilience, and discussion offers suggestions for future research. Overall, the review synthesizes the findings of these articles and offers implications for research and treatment of diverse trauma-exposed populations.