Examining Characteristics of Resilience among University Students: An International Study

Abstract

Attending university is a particularly stressful time due to unique emergent stressors such as changes in environment, loss or diminishment of social support networks, academic pressures, developing peer relationships, and financial management. There is growing recognition that these common stressors may have deleterious effects on the mental health of students. Resilience, a personality characteristic that moderates the negative effects of stress and promotes adaptation, has been associated with increased psychological well-being. Despite a growing body of research on resilience and its clinical significance in preventing mental health problems, relatively little is known about contributing factors for resilience in well-adjusted university students. This current study examined the characteristics of university students reporting high and low resilience for elucidating its clinical implications in preventing mental health problem, primarily focusing on potentially modifiable psychosocial variables. An international sample of 214 university students recruited from Australia, the United States of America, and Hong Kong universities completed measures of resilience, perceived social support, campus connectedness, and psychological distress. Results of a one-way between groups multivariate analysis of variance revealed that perceived social support, campus connectedness, and psychological distress accounted for a significant proportion (36%) of the variance between the high and low resilience groups of university students. University students with low levels of resilience reported significantly lower levels of perceived social support, campus connectedness, and higher levels of psychological distress, in comparison to university students with high levels of resilience. Findings offer important implications for the development of resilience-based interventions among university students.

Optimism and resilience among university students

“…In fact, as literature has indicated, transitions are a source of stress where individuals leave the familiar network behind, entering into an unfamiliar territory (Latham & Green, 1997). Besides, the academic pressure university students are exposed to, can have a negative effect on their mental health (Pidgeon et al, 2014). Indeed, mental illness rates are above general population rates when undergraduates get to their second year of university (Macaskill, 2013).…”

Resiliencia: impacto positivo en la salud física y mental

“…También, la resiliencia, la ansiedad rasgo, y su interacción predicen significativamente la respuesta al tratamiento después de ajustar por la edad y la duración del tratamiento; así niveles bajos de ansiedad rasgo y niveles altos de resiliencia podrían contribuir a una mejor respuesta al tratamiento en pacientes deprimidos . Pidgeon, Rowe, Stapleton, Magyar, & Lo (2014), detectaron en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios, como aquellos que presentaban puntuaciones más bajas en los niveles de resiliencia experimentaron niveles más altos de trastornos psicológicos (depresión, ansiedad y estrés), en comparación con los estudiantes universitarios con altos niveles de resiliencia; resultados similares encontraron Yu et al (2009), en una muestra pacientes con VIH: un nivel bajo de resiliencia se asocia con depresión, ansiedad y estrés. Además, diversos estudios, hacen patente el efecto moderador de la resiliencia en la gravedad de los síntomas de estrés postraumáti-co (Ben-Zur & Gilbar, 2011;Pietrzak et al, 2010;Wingo et al, 2010).…”

Shaken But Unruffled: Stories of Psychologically Distressed Public Secondary School Teachers

“…Several studies revealed that hardiness, optimism, and self-confidence proved to be effective in mitigating stress among 158 university lecturers in Csech Republic (Paulik, 2001) [172] ; hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience contributed decrease in stress among employees (Avey et al, 2009) [9] , and increased the work engagement (Avey, et al, 2008). Further, high levels of resilience have significantly lower level of psychological distress (Pidgeon, et al, 2014) [176] All of these positive coping traits which can be termed as human internal resources greatly depend on individual"s personality which is also dependent on one"s heredity, experience, culture, and environment (Apruebo, 2009) [3] . However, some traits can be transferred and enhanced through social learning and insights.…”