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Effectiveness of the Promoting Adult Resilience (PAR) Program on Resilience Resources and Positive Adaptation in Hospital Staff: A Natural Experiment Amid the War
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Saba Gheysari   , Kioumars Beshlideh * , Abdolkazem Neisi , Nasrin Arshadi |
| Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz |
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Abstract: (8 Views) |
Healthcare professionals face extraordinary occupational stressors including high workload, emotional labor, exposure to patient suffering and death, and shift work. The Promoting Adult Resilience (PAR) program, grounded in positive psychology and cognitive-behavioral therapy, aims to strengthen psychological resilience resources; however, evidence regarding its effectiveness in hospital settings, particularly in non-Western contexts and under conditions of severe environmental adversity, remains limited. This study examined the effectiveness of the PAR program on eight resilience resources (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive relations, mindfulness, and positive affect) and three indicators of positive adaptation (job performance, general health, and stress recovery) in 40 Iranian hospital staff (20 experimental, 20 control) using a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a three-month follow-up. A unique feature of this study was the occurrence of a war between post-test and follow-up, transforming the follow-up phase into a natural experiment for assessing the durability of intervention effects under real-world crisis conditions. Data were analyzed using MANCOVA and ANCOVA. At post-test, the PAR program significantly improved all 11 outcomes with predominantly large effect sizes (η²p range: 0.24-0.93). At follow-up—conducted during a ceasefire following the war—significant effects were sustained for 8 of 11 outcomes (self-efficacy, purpose in life, positive relations, mindfulness, positive affect, job performance, general health, and stress recovery), while effects on hope, optimism, and environmental mastery were attenuated. The PAR program is effective in enhancing resilience resources and positive adaptation outcomes in hospital staff. The differential sustainability of effects under war-related stress provides novel insights into the relative robustness of various resilience resources—insights that are particularly relevant for healthcare settings characterized by chronic, uncontrollable stress. |
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| Keywords: resilience training, PAR program, hospital staff, natural experiment, occupational stress, industrial-organizational psychology |
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Special
Received: 2026/05/14 | Revised: 2026/06/20 | Accepted: 2026/06/21
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| Send email to the article author |
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