The Effects of Hardiness: A Meta-Analysis of Korean Nursing Research Findings

Kim, Young Ock

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to meta-analyze the effects of hardiness on health-related variables. METHOD: After review of 19 studies performed by Korean nurses, research variables, statistical data(r or F), and other methodological data were extracted and coded. Research variables were categorized under 5 groups such as health-related behavior, well-being, adaptation, stress, and support according to conceptual similarity. Using SAS program, 20 research variables and 34 effect sizes were calculated after eliminating heterogeneous data by Q-test, RESULTS: Effects of hardiness on whole research variables was .512 and ranged from .322 to .643 by categories. The greatest effect was obtained from well-being category, whereas the smallest effect from stress category. All effect sizes were statistically significant. But fail-safe numbers were small and failed to achieve reasonable tolerance level. CONCLUSION: Results of meta-analysis indicated that hardiness has a moderate effect on health-related variables. But for improving the reliability of the results by minimizing publication bias, the more hardiness studies should be done.