Why 'The Resilience Doughnut'?

Understanding resilience through relationships, resources and personal strengths

Resilience is more than an individual’s capacity to cope with adversity. It develops through the interaction between personal competencies and the relationships, opportunities and resources available within the environments in which we live.

The Resilience Doughnut is an ecological, solution-focused psychological model developed through clinical practice and research over more than two decades. It brings together seven external contexts that contribute to the development of resilience and the internal competencies that grow through engagement with these resources.

The model recognises that children, adolescents and adults do not develop resilience in isolation. Family, friendships, education, skills, community and other significant relationships all contribute to the opportunities available to navigate life’s challenges.

A model grounded in research

The Resilience Doughnut has been developed and examined through six publications, seven studies and a theoretical paper, brought together in Dr Lyn Worsley’s doctoral research at Charles Darwin University.

The research has included:

• Development and psychometric validation of resilience measures for adolescents and adults.
• Studies examining the relationship between social resources, personal competence and psychological difficulties.
• Evaluation of resilience interventions with children and young people.
• Research examining protective resources in the relationship between stressful life events, anxiety and depression.
• Application of the model across different developmental stages.

Resilience is relational

The Resilience Doughnut does not suggest that individuals should simply think positively, suppress difficult emotions or manage adversity without support. Instead, it encourages the identification and strengthening of existing resources, the development of personal competencies and the activation of supportive relationships. It can be used to inform conversations and interventions in clinical psychology, education, families, workplaces and community settings.

The central question is not simply whether a person is resilient, but what resources, relationships and opportunities are available to support their resilience.