Setbacks to strengths: A scoping review of positive psychology constructs among veterans and service members with traumatic brain injury.

The review did not assess the quality or risk of bias of the included studies, so some included studies may have biased results. Only English peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to May 2024 were searched, so non-English studies and older work may be missed. Most included studies were cross-sectional or observational, so they describe associations at a point in time rather than showing treatment effects. The studies used different designs and measurement tools, so the review could not combine results to determine the direction or size of relationships. The review excluded studies that applied positive psychology constructs to specific skills, such as sleep hygiene, so it may not cover all intervention-relevant uses. The review found 14 intervention studies and 3 studies that built a positive psychology construct into the intervention design, so it cannot support a specific positive psychology treatment. The included samples were predominantly male and mostly from the United States, so the review may not apply to other countries or to samples with different sex composition.

No conflicts of interest were declared. No funding source is reported.

Do not read this as evidence that resilience, social support, or quality of life improve recovery after military TBI. The review mapped mostly cross-sectional studies and cannot show that any intervention works.