From adversity to strength: Examining pathways to resilience and well-being in Kosovo.

Abstract

Objective: Although much research focuses on the negative effects of trauma, it is vital to explore why some individuals thrive despite adversity, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Kosovo, a postconflict society in southeastern Europe, has received relatively little attention in trauma and resilience research. In this study, we examined potential benefits of 13 strengths: regulatory (coping, positive emotion regulation, humor), interpersonal (social support and social leisure), meaning-making (purpose, hope, collective hope, and moral meaning-making), and environmental (eco-connections and built environment). Five of these are newly developed scales, and two more are being used in Kosovo for the first time, including both measures for the new domain of environmental strengths. This is also the first quantitative study of institutional betrayal in Kosovo.

Method: Our study surveyed 500 young adults (75% women). In addition to the data on strengths, participants reported on experiences of victimization and institutional betrayal, subjective well-being, posttraumatic growth, and trauma symptoms.

Results: Most (86.6%) participants experienced some form of adversity, including institutional betrayal. Blockwise logistic regressions demonstrated that higher levels of personal hope, moral meaning-making, positive emotion regulation, mindfulness, social leisure, social support received, eco-connections, and poly-strengths significantly predicted at least one outcome of posttraumatic growth, subjective well-being, and trauma symptoms. Some measures were also significant in the unexpected direction, indicating that not all strengths help people overcome trauma.

Conclusions: These findings add global support for multidimensional approaches to resilience and suggest new measures for assessment of strengths. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).