Building a dynamic adaptational process theory of resilience (ADAPTOR): Stress exposure, reserve capacity, adaptation, and consequence.

Abstract

A Dynamic Adaptational Process Theory of Resilience (ADAPTOR) incorporates a synchronistic interplay of reserve capacity, adaptation, and consequences in the context of the larger exposome. This conceptualization of resilience centers on the argument that individuals can "build" resilience by drawing upon their various reserve capacities to effectively adapt to challenging contextual factors, and that this process has long-term consequences for health and wellness trajectories. These theoretical arguments were tested using the Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-Being-COVID Study, which is a multitimescale, longitudinal study of data collected from September 2020 through February 2022. We included 444 participants (age range = 26-90, M = 62.23, SD = 14.26), and used hierarchical linear modeling to assess the effects of global perceptions of stress reactivity (reserve capacity), daily affective reactivity (adaptation), as well as negative pandemic exposure (exposome) on trajectories of depression and anxiety (consequences) across the COVID-19 pandemic. Most pertinent to ADAPTOR, an interactive effect indicated that reserve capacity and adaptation may serve compensatory roles for one another in the context of a more stressful exposome, whereas the synchrony between reserve capacity and adaptation may be important in the context of a less stressful exposome. These findings support the ADAPTOR framework, such that reserve capacity, adaptation, the exposome, and their confluence differentially impact various consequences. This ultimately highlights the importance of taking a dynamic, process-oriented, and multifaceted approach to studying resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).