Exploring the association among trait resilience, well-being, and coping strategies in Sicilian teenagers

Abstract

Resilience is a personality trait strictly influenced by several protective and risk individual factors and analysis of its strengthness is useful to enhance the psychological well-being of teenagers. The aim of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to explore the relationships among resilience in terms of personality trait, psychological well-being, and coping strategies in a large group of Sicilian teenagers. We hypothesized that: the more the teenagers used functional coping strategies (e.g., active and supportive coping strategies), the more they were highly resilient, and they scored higher in dimensions of psychological well-being; the more the teenagers showed high levels of psychological well-being, the more they were highly resilient. The sample consisted of 467 teenagers (age-range: 11–13), 235 girls and 232 boys, randomly recruited from two state junior schools in Catania, Sicily (Southern Italy). For data collection, we used comprehensive inventory of thriving (CIT) for psychological well-being, resilience scale, and children’s coping strategies checklist-R1. Results indicated that there were statistically significant correlations between resilience and dimensions of psychological well-being, as well as between resilience and coping strategies. In addition, multiple regression analyses showed that the use of functional coping strategies and high values of psychological well-being had a positive impact on resilience of teenagers. Future research will compare these findings with those deriving from samples of children to highlight the presence of similarities or differences in the use of coping strategies.