135 general discussion particular relevance in predicting widespread adaptation to an adversity. Considering that the adversities we studied (i.e., climate change, COVID-19 pandemic) typically have implications for entire communities (cf. Chen, 2015), the perceived capacity to adapt at the collective level may be particularly empowering, as it is probably not sufficient that individuals adapt to such collective threats on their own (cf. Van Zomeren et al., 2008, 2010). Yet, it should be noted that we did not study whether collective transilience can also be a powerful predictor of examples of political collective action (e.g., protesting, signing a petition), which were not consistently predicted by individual transilience (see Chapter 2). Hence, whether collective transilience is a better predictor of other forms of collective action, compared to individual transilience, needs to be further tested in future research. Generally, more research is required to understand the relative importance of collective versus individual transilience in promoting different adaptation actions across different types of adversities and contexts. Higher Transilience Promotes Mental Health, but Not in All Contexts We expected that higher transilience may enhance mental health, because transilience reflects that people perceive they are capable to carry on, to find multiple options to adapt, and to change for the better by dealing with an adversity. Indeed, our findings generally show that higher transilience is associated with better mental health, as reflected in subjective well-being and personal positive change derived from the confrontation with the adversity. However, our findings also suggest that transilience may not promote mental health in a context that severely restricts people’s freedom of choice. In Chapter 2 we examined the relationship between transilience and indicators of mental health in the context of climate change risks. As expected, the findings across two studies conducted in the US and the UK showed that, the more strongly people perceive transilience in the face of climate change risks, the higher their levels of subjective well-being. Additionally, exploratory results in the UK suggested that higher transilience is associated with a higher degree of personal positive change (e.g., being able to do better things with one’s own life) because of the confrontation with climate change. In Chapter 3 we examined the relationship between transilience and indicators of mental health in the context of the very severe threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Again, as expected, the results showed that higher transilience increases the likelihood that people report a higher degree of personal positive change because of the confrontation with COVID-19, across different countries (i.e., Italy and The Netherlands), which reflected different levels of threat emergency and distinct national policies implemented to deal with the virus. Additionally, as expected, higher 5
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