Effectiveness of Resilience Interventions for Higher Education Students: A Meta-Analysis and Metaregression.

Our review explores the effectiveness of resilience interventions on improving resilience, reducing depressive symptoms, and overcoming stress symptoms among higher education students. We conducted a systematic search in 10 electronic English and Chinese language databases. Twenty-nine randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Effect sizes from 25 RCTs were calculated for meta-analysis and metaregression. The results of a random effects model reveal that resilience interventions are effective in improving resilience with small effect size (g =.32, 95% CI [.15,.49]), reducing depressive symptoms with small effect size (g =.25, 95% CI [.06, 44]), and overcoming stress (g =.22, 95% CI [.08,.32]). Subgroup analyses conclude that effect sizes of resilience interventions comprising skills that enhance social competency are statistically significantly larger than those of interventions without. In addition, the effect sizes are larger when resilience interventions used synchronous communication and delivered through a mixture of didactic and dialectic approaches. Metaregression reveals that trials rated with low scores in the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument considerably influence scores in resilience. Our meta-analysis supports the use of resilience interventions as a universal prevention strategy among higher education students. This review ends with implications for practice and directions for further research on developing resilience interventions. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: The results of this meta-analysis concluded that resilience interventions can potentially build resilience and reduce depressive and stress symptoms among higher education students. Interventions were more effective when they focused on building students' social competency, used synchronous communication, and delivered through a mixture of didactic and dialectic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]