136 chapter 5 transilience increased the likelihood of higher subjective well-being across different moments in time in The Netherlands, which also reflected different levels of threat severity and national restrictions. Furthermore, we found preliminary evidence that higher transilience at a given time may enhance subjective well-being later in time, indicating that transilience may be causally related to subjective well-being. However, contrary to our expectations, higher transilience did not seem to promote subjective well-being in Italy, where the restrictions implemented by the national government severely limited people’s freedom of choice. This suggests that when the context severely limits people’s possibility to act, transilience may become less relevant to promote well-being. All in all, our findings across the chapters of this dissertation support our rationale that transilience may promote mental health in the face of adversities. Importantly, this seems to be the case across varying levels of threat severity, including different adversities (i.e. climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic), countries and moments in time. However, it is noteworthy that higher transilience may not enhance well-being in highly restrictive contexts (see Chapter 3), where individuals cannot act according to what they desire, and hence engage in activities that support their well-being (e.g., meeting up with friends or family, leaving the house to go for a long walk). In such a restrictive context, psychological factors supporting well-being, like transilience, may become less relevant. Notably, whether and how contextual barriers influence the relationship between psychological factors (e.g., transilience) and well-being, to the best of our knowledge, remains understudied. Hence, the influence of contextual factors on the relationship between transilience and well-being represents a promising venue for future research on how to promote mental health in the face of adversities. 5.3 KEY OPEN QUESTIONS Based on the findings presented in this PhD dissertation, multiple interesting questions arise. In the following sections we discuss two key overarching open queries for future investigation, which we believe are the most compelling in order to advance our understanding of human transilience in the face of adversities. Within each overarching query, we discuss some specific open questions. Understanding the Generalizability of Our Findings Is Transilience Relevant across Other Adversities and Countries? While we studied transilience across different adversities, we focused on climate change risks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we conducted our studies in WEIRD countries (Wester, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic). As such, it remains open to what extent people perceive transilience, and the extent to which transilience
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