Lived experience perspectives on resilience, mental health, and wellbeing: a focus group study of individual, social, and systemic determinants in Aotearoa New Zealand
In this study, resilience did not emerge as an individual capacity, but as something grounded in relational networks situated within cultural, spiritual and ecological contexts. These findings suggest a need for transformational approaches to resilience assessment and intervention by policymakers and clinicians, which attend to structural determinants as well as individual coping capacity. Effective interventions are likely to be more acceptable and meaningful when they are community-grounded, culturally embedded and recognise resilience as a collective resource, rather than only individualised adaptation to inequitable conditions.
Authors
- Cameron Graham Walker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3176-9341)
- Matthew J. G. Parsons (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2004-1347)
- Anthony O’Brien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1957-3699)
- Paul Rouse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5223-3143)
- Michael O’Sullivan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0055-599X)
- Mike Edmonds
- Stefan Sebastian Heinz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6374-0420)
- Lara Wall
Institutions
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- eCoast (New Zealand) (NZ)
- University of Waikato (NZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2026-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-26255-1
- Primary Topic
- Resilience and Mental Health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00