Resources that protect against the development of psychiatric disturbances are reported to be a significant force behind healthy adjustment to life stresses, rather than the absence of risk factors. In this paper a new scale for measuring the presence of protective resources that promote adult resilience is validated. The preliminary version of the scale consisted of 45 items covering five dimensions: personal competence, social competence, family coherence, social support and personal structure. The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), the Sense of Coherence scale (SOC) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) were given to 59 patients once, and to 276 normal controls twice, separated by four months. The factor structure was replicated. The respective dimensions had Cronbach's alphas of 0.90, 0.83, 0.87, 0.83 and 0.67, and four-month test-retest correlations of 0.79, 0.84, 0.77, 0.69 and 0.74. Construct validity was supported by positive correlations with SOC and negative correlations with HSCL. The RSA differentiated between patients and healthy control subjects. Discriminant validity was indicated by differential positive correlations between RSA subscales and SOC. The RSA-scale might be used as a valid and reliable measurement in health and clinical psychology to assess the presence of protective factors important to regain and maintain mental health.

Resilience is a construct of increasing interest, but validated scales measuring resilience factors among adults are scarce. Here, a scale named the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) was crossvalidated and compared with measures of personality (Big Five/5PFs), cognitive abilities (Raven's Advanced Matrices, Vocabulary, Number series), and social intelligence (TSIS). All measures were given to 482 applicants for the military college. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the fit of the five-factor model, measuring 'personal strength', 'social competence', 'structured style', 'family cohesion' and 'social resources'. Using Big Five to discriminate between well adjusted and more vulnerable personality profiles, all resilience factors were positively correlated with the well adjusted personality profile. RSA-personal strength was most associated with 5PFs-emotional stability, RSA-social competence with 5PFs-extroversion and 5PFs-agreeableness, as well as TSIS-social skills, RSA-structured style with 5PFs-conscientiousness. Unexpectedly but interestingly, measures of RSA-family cohesion and RSA-social resources were also related to personality. Furthermore, the RSA was unrelated to cognitive abilities. This study supported the convergent and discriminative validity of the scale, and thus the inference that individuals scoring high on this scale are psychologically healthier, better adjusted, and thus more resilient.

The present study was designed to examine developmental patterns of identity status change during adolescence and young adulthood through meta‐analysis. Some 124 studies appearing in PsycINFO, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, and Dissertation Abstracts International between 1966 and 2005 provided data. All calculations were performed using the software program, Comprehensive Meta‐analysis. Results from longitudinal studies showed the mean proportion of adolescents making progressive identity status changes was .36, compared with .15 who made regressive changes and .49 who remained stable. Cross‐sectional studies showed the mean proportion of moratoriums rising steadily to age 19 years and declining thereafter, while the mean proportion of the identity achieved rose over late adolescence and young adulthood; foreclosure and diffusion statuses declined over the high school years, but fluctuated throughout late adolescence and young adulthood. Meta‐analyses showed that large mean proportions of samples were not identity achieved by young adulthood. Possible reasons for this phenomenon are explored.

Social intelligence is a construct that not only appeals to laymen as a relevant individual difference but also has shown promising practical applications. Nevertheless, the use of social intelligence in research and applied settings has been limited by definitional problems, difficulties in empirically differentiating social intelligence from related constructs, and the complexity of most existing measures of social intelligence. The goal of the present research was to address some of these obstacles by designing a multi-faceted social intelligence measure that is short and easy to administer. Three studies were conducted to develop and validate the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS). Study 1 examined professional psychologists' interpretations of social intelligence to derive a consensually agreed-upon definition of the construct. In Study 2, a large pool of social intelligence items were tested, and a 3-factor, 21-item scale was identified. In Study 3, the stability of this measure was confirmed.

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Objective. The purpose of this prospective study was to explore the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) as a predictor for developing psychiatric symptoms when exposed to stressful life events. Methods. A healthy sample (N = 159) completed the RSA, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) and the occurrence of Stressful Life Events (SLE) twice, with a three-month interval. Results. The results indicated that the RSA measures important protective factors that buffer the development of psychiatric symptoms when individuals encounter stressful life events. Two of the RSA factors, in particular, contributed to buffering the development of psychiatric symptoms.Conclusion. The findings suggest that the RSA is a significant predictor of mental health and a useful tool for further research examining individual differences in stress tolerance.

Purpose: The present meta-analysis summarized the proportion of comorbid personality disorders (PDs) in patients with anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), respectively, and examined possible moderating variables. Methods:A search of the databases PsychINFO, Embase, and Medline for the period 1980 -2016 identified 87 studies from 18 different countries. Results:The mean proportion of PDs among patients with any type of eating disorder (ED) was .52 compared to .09 in healthy controls. There were no statistically significant differences between AN (.49) and BN (.54) in proportions of any PD or PD clusters except for obsessive compulsive PD (.23 vs .12 in AN and BN respectively).Conclusions: Both ED diagnoses had a similar comorbidity profile with a high prevalence of borderline and avoidant PDs. Moderator analyses conducted for any ED and any PD yielded significant differences for diagnostic systems with respect to EDs, method for assessing PD as well as patient weight and age.Keywords: personality disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, meta-analysis, comorbidity Running head: EATING-AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS 3The Comorbidity of Personality Disorders in Eating Disorders: A Meta-Analysis Eating disorders (EDs), notably anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), are characterized by self-inflicted weight loss and recurrent episodes of bingeing and purging,respectively. An irrational overvaluation of the importance of controlling food, weight, and body shape represent the specific clinical features [1]. Severe EDs impair quality of life and interpersonal relations [2], and increase the number of productive years lost to disability [3].The standardized mortality rate is about five times higher than in the general population [4,5], and it takes six to nine years before 70% of the patients no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for an ED [6,7].Comorbid personality disorders (PDs) are frequently encountered in the treatment of EDs, and may become as protracted and impairing as the EDs. Previous studies [8][9][10] show that a comorbid borderline, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive PD may worsen the long-term treatment-outcome of EDs. Moreover, a comorbid PD may complicate treatment challenges by increasing the risk of premature treatment termination due to a fragile therapeutic alliance [9,11], prolonging treatment for non-therapeutic reasons [12][13][14] or resulting in insufficient focus on alleviating ED-symptoms due to the need to address the PD. However, there are inconsistent findings from studies [15,16] and reviews [17,18] as to whether a concurrent PD predicts a poor outcome of an ED, whether PDs improve at the same rate as the ED or tend to persist after the alleviation of ED symptoms [19][20][21][22].In order to develop and examine comprehensive treatment models in terms of their cost-effectiveness, ability to overcome treatment challenges, and to prevent an unfavourable ED outcome, it is essential to determine how frequently or likely comorbid PDs are expected to appear in EDs. Research to date h...