Refocus on Planning and Positive Refocusing Mediate the Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility and Psychological Resilience

Abstract

Cognitive flexibility is one of the most important indicators of mental health and is a cognitive process at the heart of psychological resilience. The more cognitively flexible individuals are, the more likely they are to use adaptive emotion regulation strategies, which in turn increases their psychological resilience, according to the results of the current study. This study highlights the value of fostering cognitive flexibility and adaptive emotion regulation strategies to promote psychological resilience, and provides practical insights for practitioners. For future studies, training programmes designed to improve cognitive flexibility may have downstream benefits for emotion regulation and resilience-for example, cognitive behavioural therapy, rational-emotional therapy and mindfulness-based interventions, which are known to improve cognitive flexibility, may be particularly effective in promoting adaptive emotional responses.