An integrative process model of resilience in an academic context: Resilience resources, coping strategies, and positive adaptation

Dayna J Fullerton, Lisa M Zhang and Sabina Kleitman

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: Tertiary study presents students with a number of pressures and challenges. Thus, mental resilience plays a key role in students’ well-being and performance. Resilience research has moved away from conceptualising resilience as a trait and towards studying resilience as a process by which resources protect against the negative impact of stressors to produce positive outcomes. However, there is a lack of research in the academic domain examining the mechanisms underlying this process. This study addressed this gap by examining a range of personal resilience resources and their interaction with coping responses to produce positive adaptation outcomes, in a sample of 306 undergraduate students. Firstly, individual differences in resilience were examined, whereby factor analysis resulted in self-report measures of resilience-related attributes converging onto an overarching factor. The extracted factor was then validated against markers of positive adaptation (mental well-being, university adjustment, and somatic health symptoms), and the mediating roles of coping strategies were investigated through structural equation modelling. The resilience resources factor directly predicted mental well-being and adjustment; and indirectly predicted adjustment and somatic health symptoms through support-seeking and avoidant coping, respectively. These findings have theoretical implications for how resilience is conceptualised, as well as practical implications for improving student well-being and adjustment through promoting social support and reducing disengaged and avoidant coping strategies.

Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0246000

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246000

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