Relationship of resilience to personality, coping, and psychiatric symptoms in young adults

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 585 - 599
• Main Authors: Campbell-Sills, Laura, Cohan, Sharon L., Stein, Murray B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2006; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; College students; Coping behavior; Emotional trauma; Female; Five-factor personality model; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - psychology; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Personality; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Resilience (psychological); Stress reactions; Wounds and Injuries - psychology; Young adults; Coping behavior; Stress reactions; College students; Five-factor personality model; Emotional trauma; Resilience (psychological); Human; Emotion emotionality; Personality; Trauma; Stress; Resilience; Symptomatology; Young adult; Mental disorder; Coping
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2005.05.001

Developing a comprehensive understanding of resilience across the lifespan is potentially important for mental health promotion, yet resilience has been vastly understudied compared to disease and vulnerability. The present study investigated the relationship of resilience to personality traits, coping styles, and psychiatric symptoms in a sample of college students. Measures included the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, NEO Five Factor Inventory, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and Brief Symptom Inventory. Results supported hypotheses regarding the relationship of resilience to personality dimensions and coping styles. Resilience was negatively associated with neuroticism, and positively related to extraversion and conscientiousness. Coping styles also predicted variance in resilience above and beyond the contributions of these personality traits. Task-oriented coping was positively related to resilience, and mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and resilience. Emotion-oriented coping was associated with low resilience. Finally, resilience was shown to moderate the relationship between a form of childhood maltreatment (emotional neglect) and current psychiatric symptoms. These results augment the literature that seeks to better define resilience and provide evidence for the construct validity of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale.