17 general introduction To what extent does Transilience Enhance Mental Health? Contemporary adversities, such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, can undeniably have serious negative impacts on individuals’ mental and physical health (Fritze et al., 2008; Manning & Clayton, 2018; Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). However, transilience offers a positive perspective on human adaptation to these adversities, as it reflects individuals’ perception of their capacity to carry on, to find multiple options to adapt, and to change for the better by adapting to a certain adversity. Consequently, it seems plausible that transilience may help people to maintain good mental health, even in the face of large-scale contemporary adversities. Research has shown that psychological resilience is typically associated with higher levels of subjective well-being, and with better mental health in different domains (Hu et al., 2015), including the COVID-19 pandemic (Kavčič et al., 2021; Huffman et al., 2021). In this dissertation, we aim to expand upon these studies by examining whether transilience, which captures more than resilience alone, increases the likelihood that people show good mental health in the face of threats with varying levels of severity, including different adversities and contexts. Specifically, we test whether higher transilience is related to displaying higher levels of general subjective well-being and a higher degree of personal positive change (e.g., learning to better handle difficulties) due to the confrontation with an adversity. We study this both in the domain of climate change risks (Chapter 2) and in the domain of the COVID-19 pandemic (Chapter 3). 1.4 OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS In sum, in this PhD dissertation we aim to empirically test whether people perceive they can be transilient in the face of contemporary large-scale adversities, both as individuals and as a community. Furthermore, we want to assess the extent to which higher transilience can promote a wide range of adaptive responses, including individual and community-based adaptation actions. Next, we want to test whether higher transilience is related to higher subjective well-being and positive personal change, as indicators of good mental health and quality of life. We test our rationale across three empirical chapters. In Chapter 2, we develop and validate a scale to measure individual transilience in the face of climate change. Across four empirical studies conducted in three different countries (US, The Netherlands, UK), we assess the content, concurrent, discriminant, incremental and predictive validity of the climate change transilience scale. In doing so, we aim to verify that transilience is positively related, yet does not overlap with existing related constructs, namely self-efficacy, outcome efficacy and resilience. We also aim to verify that transilience does not imply that people perceive the risks of climate change 1
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