Exploring the differential effects of psychological resilience and social support in mitigating post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms: real-world network analysis of front-line rescuers

• Published in: BJPsych open Vol. 10; no. 3; p. e109
• Main Authors: Cheng, Peng, Wang, Lirong, Zhou, Ying, Ma, Wenjing, Li, Weihui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Cambridge University Press 10.05.2024
• Subjects: Anxiety; Building failures; Consent; cross-sectional study; General Adult; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; network analysis; Post traumatic stress disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Psychological resilience; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Social support; Trauma; China; social support; cross-sectional study; network analysis; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Psychological resilience
• ISSN: 2056-4724; 2056-4724
• DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2024.64

Although both psychological resilience and social support are widely believed to be effective in alleviating post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms in individuals with traumatic events, there has been a lack of comparative analysis of their intervention effects on different post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms. Furthermore, previous studies have mostly failed to control for potential confounding effects caused by different traumatic events. We used the novel network analysis approach to examine the differential moderating effects of psychological resilience and social support on post-traumatic psychiatric symptoms, controlling for the confounding effects of traumatic events. We recruited 264 front-line rescuers who experienced the same traumatic event. Quantified edge weights and bridge expected influence (BEI) were applied to compare the alleviating effects of psychological resilience and social support. Our study revealed distinct correlations in a sample of front-line rescuers: social support negatively correlates more with psychosomatic symptoms, notably fatigue in depressive networks and sleep disturbance in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) networks, whereas psychological resilience shows fewer such correlations. Quantitative analysis using BEI indicated that psychological resilience more effectively suppresses depressive and anxiety symptom networks, whereas social support more significantly inhibits PTSD symptom networks. The current study represents the first attempt to examine the differential effects of psychological resilience and social support on post-traumatic outcomes in real-world emergency rescuers, controlling for the confounding effect of traumatic events. Our results can act as the theoretical reference for future precise and efficient post-trauma psychological interventions.