Linking Trauma to its Resilience: a Categorical Analysis of Traumas and Their Specific Resilience/Prevention and Treatment Factors

Abstract

Although there are many potential trajectories following a traumatic event, resilience has been shown, for the majority of people, to be the modal outcome. However, what are the factors that enable individuals to do so, while others develop PTSD, for example? Additionally, given that there may be different types of resilience necessary depending on the situation, what are the specific factors in different potentially traumatic events (PTE) that promote resilience; conversely, what are the individual factors in different PTE’s that make that situation particularly vulnerable? Understanding the specific factors that contribute to resilience in a given situation can not only help individuals rebuild themselves after trauma, but, perhaps prevent the gravity of the trauma in the first place. Just as no PTE is identical, the resilience needed to combat it is not identical, and the potential trajectory for trauma post-PTE is not identical. Therefore, three different PTE’s will be examined for their unique dynamics, difficulties, and resilience factors.