Predictors of Resilience for High School Adolescents

Nam, Kyoung A; Lim, Ji Young; Song, Hee Young

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the relationship between resilience, coping mechanism, social support and family strengths and to explore predictors of resilience in high school adolescents. METHOD: The participants in this study were 296 high school adolescents residing in two urban areas in Korea. The students completed self-report questionnaires measuring Resilience (Jew et al., 1997), Coping Mechanism (Carver et al., 1989), Social Support (Lee, 1997) and Family Strengths (Olson, 1982).
RESULTS
Socio-demographic characteristics of the students were found to influence resilience, coping mechanism, social support and family strengths. The results showed that resilience, problem-focused coping, social support and family strengths were correlated positively and self-esteem support, problem-focused coping, sibling's and mother's help, and instrumental support were the predictors of resilience in these students.
CONCLUSION
We found there were specific attributes of individual, social and family factors which predict resilience for adolescents in school. These results suggest further study to investigate the relationship between stress and resilience, identify other predictors of resilience for Korean students, and to examine whether protective factors for adolescents' problem behaviors have a similar influence on resilience.