Document Type

Article

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of psychological resilience for well-being. While several reviews have addressed resilience in specific populations or contexts, few have synthesized global literature across diverse populations. This review examines psychological resilience across diverse populations, focusing on measurement, associated factors, and future public health preparedness strategies. Method: Guided by the PRISMA, a thorough search of PsycINFO, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science was conducted in February 2024, including quantitative studies considering psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic published in peer-reviewed English journals from 2020 to 2024, using search terms relevant to psychological resilience and COVID-19. Results: Sixty-eight studies were included, mostly using CD-RISC to measure psychological resilience. Multiple factors at various socio-ecological levels were associated with psychological resilience, including individual-level traits (e.g., emotion regulation, optimism, coping behaviors), interpersonal supports (e.g., family and peer relationships), community influences (e.g., workplace environments), and structural conditions (e.g., access to mental health services, socioeconomic status). Effective strategies to enhance resilience during the pandemic included social connectedness initiatives through government policies and health communication campaigns, and telehealth services. For future public health crises preparedness, long-term strategies should emphasize investments in mental health infrastructure, resilience-building activities, and robust support to improve psychosocial well-being across diverse populations. Conclusions: Future public health crises preparedness requires prioritizing investments in mental health services, resilience-building activities, and mHealth applications. While the review was limited to peer-reviewed English-language articles from four databases, which may restrict the comprehensiveness of the findings, the insights from this review provide a foundational resource for research, policy, and interventions to strengthen resilience globally at individual, community, and structural levels.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08926-1

Rights

© The Author(s) 2026 

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

APA Citation

Pasha, A., Inusah, A.-H. S., Nayem, J., Li, X., & Qiao, S. (2026). Psychological resilience in the COVID-19 response: a systematic review for future public health preparedness. Current Psychology, 45,377.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08926-1

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