Coping processes and personality factors as predictors of resilience in adolescent students: Validation of a structural model // Procesos de afrontamiento y factores de personalidad como predictores de la resiliencia en adolescentes: validación de un modelo estructural

Abstract

To know on which factors educators should focus to favor resilience development in adolescence, this study tests two predictive models of the hypothetical relations between two kinds of predictors -coping styles and resiliency personality factors- and resilience as criterion. A total of 1078 Spanish students (12-18 years old) from four different Spanish schools participated in the study. To determine to what extent the variables in the model predict resilience, four path analyses with latent variables (PALV) were realized: two for testing each model, and the remaining two for cross-validation. Results showed that perceived improvement in resilience depends mainly on coping strategies and styles in the expected direction, and that resiliency (personality) factors mediate the effect of coping styles, but their own effect is very low. Moreover, the effect of "sense of relatedness" was contrary towards expectations coming from previous studies. A hypothetical explanation of this result is suggested.