Understanding Resilience: Investigating the Relationship between Risk Factors, Resilience, and Psychological Well-Being

Numerous studies have indicated that adversity serves as a primary antecedent in the development of psychological resilience, however, adversity can have negative effects on psychological well-being. The current study focused on contributing to present literature by further investigating the roles of protective factors and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on resilience development, as well as the relationship between risk factors, resilience, and psychological well-being in adulthood. It was hypothesized that ACEs would predict the development of resilience when protective factors were high. It was also hypothesized that resilience positively influences the relationship between risk factors and psychological well-being by negating the direct negative effect of risk factors on psychological well-being. Participants in the study included adults between 25- and 71-years-old in the U.S. recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The survey included questions addressing demographic information, adverse childhood experiences, resilience, protective factors, perceived stress, and psychological well-being. A moderation and mediation analysis were used to analyze the hypotheses. The moderation hypothesis was not supported as no significant interaction was found between ACEs and protective factors in predicting resilience, however, the vital role of protective factors in developing resilience was found. A partial mediation was found between risk factors and psychological well-being. The results suggest that resilience plays a small role in negating the negative effects caused by risk factors

Understanding resilience: Investigating the relationship between risk factors, resilience, and psychological well-being

Adversity in life is rarely considered positive. Adverse events can increase stress levels and decrease psychological well-being. However, experience of overcoming hardship can be the start of developing psychological resilience in life. Resilience is known to help regulate negative emotions and provides protection to one’s psychological well-being. The current study focused on contributing to present literature by further investigating the role of resilience on mitigating the negative impact of stress on psychological well-being. In the current study, resilience is expected to positively influence the relationship between perceived stress and psychological well-being by negating the direct negative effect of stress on psychological well-being. Participants in the study included adults between 25- and 71-years-old in the U.S. recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The survey included questions addressing demographic information, perceived stress, resilience, and psychological well-being. A mediation analysis was used to analyze the hypotheses. Results showed a partial mediation found between perceived stress and psychological well-being and this relation suggests that resilience plays a small role in negating the negative effects caused by stress