SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1540892
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements and Challenges in Mass Gathering Medicine: Enhancing Health OutcomesView all 7 articles
Resilience in Aid Workers in Disaster and Emergencies: A Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
- 2Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Alborz, Iran
- 3Nursing Care Research Center in Chronic Diseases, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran
- 4Shahed University, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
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Introduction: Resilience is a critical attribute for aid workers operating in disasters and emergencies, as it directly influences their ability to cope with high-stress environments' psychological and physical challenges. Understanding the components of resilience can inform targeted interventions and training programs, ultimately fostering a more robust and adaptable workforce capable of meeting disaster response demands.Objectives: This study aimed to identify components of resilience in disaster and emergency aid workers by systematic review and thematic analysis.Methodology: The systematic review adhered to the PRISMA protocol, searching various databases for resilience studies related to disaster aid workers from 1989 to November 2023. The study’s protocol is registered in PROSPERO under the registration number CRD42024508783. Articles were obtained from data resources such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. At first, the keywords were determined based on the title and topic of the research, MeSH, previous texts, and the opinions of researchers and experts, and the search strategy was determined based on the keywords for each database. Inductive content analysis was used to identify components of resilience.Results: From 3198 searched studies, 17 were included in the final analysis. We identified five key components of resilience among disaster and emergency aid workers, which were categorized into two main groups: traits and process. Resilience traits include 1) health status, 2) essence and personality, 3) capability and competency, and resilience process includes 1) support platforms, and 2) organization and job.Conclusion: The study's results can greatly help to understand the concept of resilience in disaster and emergency aid workers, which will ultimately serve as a guide for officials and researchers in planning and appropriate interventions to promote resilience in aid workers.
Keywords: resilience, Aid workers, Rescuers, Crisis, disaster, Emergencies
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 22 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sadeghi, Ghomian, Ebadi, Rakhshanderou and Kolivand. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zohreh Ghomian, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.