Lived experience perspectives on resilience, mental health, and wellbeing: a focus group study of individual, social, and systemic determinants in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nine focus groups with 92 participants across urban and rural contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand produced five major themes related to resilience.

• Total sample size was N=92 participants across nine focus groups.
• 48% of participants identified as Māori or Pacific Peoples.
• Focus groups were conducted across both urban and rural contexts.
• Twelve resilience indicators were explored through participant narratives promoted by vignettes and semi-structured discussions.
• Thematic analysis was used as the analytical approach.

Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis: personal resilience factors; health and wellbeing; social connection and reciprocity; systemic and structural factors; and cultural and environmental resources.

• Theme 1 was personal resilience factors.
• Theme 2 was health and wellbeing.
• Theme 3 was social connection and reciprocity.
• Theme 4 was systemic and structural factors.
• Theme 5 was cultural and environmental resources.

Participants contested Western individualised models of resilience, demonstrating that agency emerges through complex assemblages of relationships across human, more-than-human, ancestral, and environmental domains.

• Participants rejected individual capacity as the primary source of resilience.
• Agency was described as emerging through relationships across human, more-than-human, ancestral, and environmental domains.
• This finding was especially salient given that 48% of participants identified as Māori or Pacific Peoples.
• The study used culturally grounded protocols including Māori-led facilitation using the Hui Process and Talanoa-informed engagement for Pacific participants.

Culturally grounded facilitation protocols were embedded throughout the study, including Māori-led facilitation and Talanoa-informed engagement for Pacific participants.

• The Hui Process was used for Māori-led facilitation.
• Talanoa-informed engagement was used for Pacific participants.
• The study was guided by Māori, Pacific, and lived-experience advisors.
• These protocols were designed to ensure cultural congruence with the communities studied.

Resilience was found to be a collective resource grounded in relational networks situated within cultural, spiritual, and ecological contexts rather than an individual capacity.

• Findings challenged many existing resilience indices whose theoretical underpinnings are not necessarily congruent with lived experiences of culturally diverse groups.
• Resilience was described as situated within cultural, spiritual, and ecological contexts.
• The study found that effective interventions are likely to be more acceptable and meaningful when they are community-grounded and culturally embedded.
• Authors concluded resilience should be recognised as a collective resource rather than only individualised adaptation to inequitable conditions.

The study findings suggest a need for transformational approaches to resilience assessment and intervention that attend to structural determinants as well as individual coping capacity.

• The recommendation was directed at both policymakers and clinicians.
• Structural determinants were identified as needing attention alongside individual coping capacity.
• Effective interventions were described as likely to be more acceptable and meaningful when community-grounded and culturally embedded.
• The authors called for recognising resilience as a collective resource rather than only individualised adaptation to inequitable conditions.