This article explores the concept of resilience within the framework of fengshui forests in subtropical southern China over the last millennium. Consisting of small patches of old-growth or old secondary-growth forest associated with graves, temples, and the paths of wind and water into and out of villages, fengshui forests were historically seen as nodes that supplied vital qi(energy, force or substance) to the community, an understanding that persists to the present day. Using a combination of textual, ethnographic, and scientific evidence, we examine how these forests, deeply embedded in the cultural and ecological fabric of the region, have fostered community resilience and sustainability over centuries. We show that fengshui’s vitalist and syncretic conception of the relationship among living people, ancestors, the land, and the trees allowed it to bridge Indigenous and imperial moral ecologies. By foregrounding both the emic and etic implication of fengshui, this article contributes to our understanding of Indigenous moral ecologies, the histories of social-ecological resilience, and the role of sacred forests in sustaining biodiversity and community well-being, past and present.

Social support is the degree to which people are accepted by, cared for, and attended to by important others and is one of the most popular constructs in the psychological canon. This project synthesized data from 60 meta-analyses, which included over 2,700 studies and 2.1 million participants, to evaluate the association of social support with psychological adjustment. Results from a second-order meta-analysis indicated that, overall, social support yielded a robust association with psychological adjustment, r = .24, 95% CI [.22, .26]. Effects of social support were detectable across several outcome categories (mental health, psychological traits, educational outcomes, workplace outcomes), specific outcomes (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, stress, burnout), and sources of support (friends, family, peers, teachers, coworkers, supervisors), and were detectable across age and cultural groups. However, perceived support was more strongly associated with psychological adjustment than received support. Furthermore, social support effects were larger when examining unhealthy samples, well-validated scales, and cross-sectional studies. Finally, effects were less pronounced in six meta-analyses that controlled for relevant covariates, r = .17, 95% CI [.10, .23]. Given the substantial variability of social support effects across prior meta-analyses (range = .07–.41), future study is needed to identify additional moderators of its association with psychological adjustment.