Originating from research with people from Western societies, the emphasis on positive traits in health and well-being has extended to studies with people from non-Western societies. This is illustrated by the proliferation of research with the Chinese people in the last two decades. Psychological resilience has emerged as one of the most important strengths in the Chinese people to facilitate the emergence from crises and arrival at optimal functioning, as demonstrated by the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Resilience is likely to be proved as a crucial attribute in coping with the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact of research with the Chinese people is limited by the exclusive focus on mental health outcomes at the individualistic level, which is necessarily a result of the import of positive psychology originating from the West. This precludes a complete understanding of the collective mobilization of positive psychosocial resources and thus the public health implications of resilience in the Chinese context.

The goal of this Research Topic is to examine the associations of resilience with established biomarkers of health to arrive at a contextualized understanding of the mechanisms translating resilience into better health among different Chinese populations. The recent COVID-19 outbreak is conceptualized as the context in which positive psychosocial resources are mobilized and augmented to buffer the impact of this pandemic that has already taken the lives of more than eighty-two thousand people in China.

This Research Topic aims to illuminate the association between resilience and health outcomes, the associated biological and psychosocial mechanisms, and the public health implications, with a focus on COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic in the Chinese context. Topics may include the following:

• Measuring resilience in Chinese populations
• Resilience and health in the Chinese context
• Resilience and biomarkers of health, with a focus on but not restricted to cortisol
• Ontogenesis of the resilient/ non-resilient phenotype, with a focus on the impact of childhood adversities

Since beginning 2021 AUGUST

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