Resilience and its external determinants: cross-sectional survey and network analysis of parenting, trauma and stress in college students

TL;DR

This study explores how external factors like parenting, trauma, and stress relate to resilience in college students using surveys and network analysis.

Contribution

The study identifies key external correlates of resilience and their network relationships, which were previously underexplored.

Findings

Learning pressure, emotional neglect, and maternal care are critical external factors linked to resilience.

Emotional abuse is the central node in the resilience-related network.

Negative associations were found between emotional neglect and family support.

Abstract

Compared with well-studied internal adaptive systems, there remains a lack of comprehensive exploration of external correlated factors of resilience, as well as the way in which each ingredient of resilience is influenced.

This study aims to explore the dimensional associations among resilience and several factors, including parenting rearing style, childhood trauma and negative life events.

A series of social demographic variables, parental rearing patterns, childhood trauma, negative life events and resilience were assessed. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore correlated factors of resilience, with all the above factors included in the model. Network analysis was conducted to identify the central factor and key associations, and to visualise complex interactions among resilience, parenting rearing style, childhood trauma and negative life events.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 4302 freshmen (2388 females, 55.5%; mean 18.59; s.d. = 0.95) from three colleges between October and December 2020. Three key associations were discovered: ‘learning pressure and emotional control’ (r = −0.195, P < 0.05), ‘emotional neglect and family support’ (r = −0.129, P < 0.05) and ‘maternal care family support’ (r = 0.193, P < 0.05). ‘Emotional abuse’ (bridge expected influence, −0.588) was the core node of the estimated network.

This study found that learning pressure, emotional neglect and maternal care emerged as the most critical external correlates of resilience. Emotional abuse occupies the most central position in the external correlated network of resilience. Future longitudinal research should clarify the temporal impacts of these associations, and the key factors, in the dynamic resilience system.

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