Examining factors that contribute to the process of resilience following spinal cord injury

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. OBJECTIVE: To examine factors that contribute to the process of positive adjustment, or resilience, in an adult community sample with spinal cord injury (SCI). SETTING: South Australian Spinal Cord Injury Service, Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, South Australia, Australia. METHODS:A postal survey comprising standardised measures of resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 item), self-efficacy (Moorong Self-Efficacy Scale), locus of control (Locus of Control of Behaviour Scale) and psychological distress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 item). RESULTS: Of 60 respondents, 58% reported moderate to high levels of resilience. Resilience correlated significantly with high self-efficacy (r=0.68, P0.05), time since injury (r=-0.14, P>0.05), gender (t(58)=-0.92, P>0.05), lesion completeness (t(57)=-0.86, P>0.05), or SCI diagnosis (t(58)=-1.21, P>0.05). A multiple regression indicated that psychological distress and self-efficacy were the only two variables that uniquely contributed to resilient behaviour. CONCLUSION: Resilience is an important psychological process in the longer-term management of SCI which can be promoted by targeting rehabilitation interventions towards mood management in addition to self efficacy beliefs. Larger-scale research will help to validate these results.SA Kilic, DS Dorstyn and NG Guive