The Protective Role of Resilience in Attenuating Emotional Distress and Aggression Associated with Early-life Stress in Young Enlisted Military Service Candidates

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) may induce long-lasting psychological complications in adulthood. The protective role of resilience against the development of psychopathology is also important. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among ELS, resilience, depression, anxiety, and aggression in young adults. Four hundred sixty-one army inductees gave written informed consent and participated in this study. We assessed psychopathology using the Korea Military Personality Test, ELS using the Childhood Abuse Experience Scale, and resilience with the resilience scale. Analyses of variance, correlation analyses, and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses were conducted for statistical analyses. The regression model explained 35.8%, 41.0%, and 23.3% of the total variance in the depression, anxiety, and aggression indices, respectively. We can find that even though ELS experience is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and aggression, resilience may have significant attenuating effect against the ELS effect on severity of these psychopathologies. Emotion regulation showed the most beneficial effect among resilience factors on reducing severity of psychopathologies. To improve mental health for young adults, ELS assessment and resilience enhancement program should be considered.

Resilience and the Role of Depressed and Anxious Mood in the Relationship Between Perceived Social Isolation and Perceived Sleep Quality During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In fact, the results suggest that individuals who are low in resilience may be especially at-risk for depressed and anxious mood as well as sleep impairments. The protective role of resilience against negative affect has been addressed in many studies [56][57][58], and resilience interventions have shown their effectiveness in reducing stress, depression, and anxiety [59,60]. Given our finding that negative moods predict poorer sleep quality, combined with research documenting a relationship between sleep quality and immune functioning [61], protecting individuals from elevated negative moods may be particularly important during a pandemic.…”

Childhood adversities and distress - The role of resilience in a representative sample

“…Unlike previous trials (e.g. [ 72 , 73 ]), we covered the entire age range from 14 to 92 years. As emphasized in the review of Johnson et al [ 66 ], an expansion of the range of populations investigated is necessary to detect buffering factors due to the requirements of statistical power.…”

Resilience Mediates Impact of Some Childhood Maltreatment on Post‐Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Conscripted Marines in the Republic of Korea

“…Negative psychosocial experiences in early life increase an individual's intrinsic vulnerability to psychiatric problems, as shown in a large prospective study of a US military cohort (Smith et al, ). Resilient people recover their normal function and regulate their emotions when responding to traumatic events in adulthood, using psychosocial resilience and cognitive flex­ibility (Gates et al, ; Kim et al, ). However, military service members who experienced severe childhood maltreatment are mentally and physically vulnerable during military training and service tasks (Van Voorhees et al, ).…”

“…Despite this high stress, there is little empirical evidence from Korea to support that resilience mediates trauma and psychopathology later in life. Nonetheless, limited data support that Korean military service candidates’ resilience buffers the impact of early life stress on emotional distress and military adjustment (Choi et al, ; Kim et al, ).…”

“…Psychological trauma causes confusion, dissociation, panic, agitation, or amnesia (Solomon & Siegel, ). These responses are associated with increasing depression, anxiety, and aggression among military service candidates (Gillespie, Phifer, Bradley, & Ressler, ; Kim et al, ). The long‐term consequences of traumatic experiences include increased suicidal tendencies, aggression, violence, criminality, homelessness, and social isolation (Ramchand, Rudavsky, Grant, Tanielian, & Jaycox, ).…”