Is resilience the „bright side” of psychological distress?

Background: Resilience, the dynamic competence to control positive affects as a function of environmental requests and operationalized in the German Resilience Scale (RS-13) of Wagnild and Young was investigated. Methods: 192 rehabilitation patients of two German clinics (107 OP-orthopedic, 61 NP-neurological, 24 PP-psychotherapy-patients) answered the RS-13 and several others (quality of life, work-life-balance, disease-specific complaints). Hypothesis supposed low levels of resilience in PP, and moderate ones in OP or NP, and a negative connection with psychological distress. Findings: PP reported lower levels of resilience (M=53, SD=18) compared to OP (M=67, SD=13), and NP (M=70, SD=15) and to the normative German sample (M=70, SD=12). High levels of resilience were predicted by different aspects of low psychological distress in each group. Discussion: Beside the differences regarding the mean level of resilience between psychotherapy and physically ill patients, the main question could be carefully answered as “yes” – resilience could play an important role as the "bright side" of psychological distress. Longitudinal studies are necessary.