The Relationship Between Resilience, Stress Distress And Adjustment

Resilience is described as a kind of positive mental quality which can help individuals to buffer or resist the negative effects which are induced by stress, crisis or trauma, and promote their adjustment and thriving. Foreign research of resilience is very fruitful in the field of theory and application in nearly 40 years based on a host of studies. But concerning the property of resilience against stress, as well as the study of the mechanisms which resilience keep mental health, there is still something undefined and the conclusions were not consistent. In addition, since the research on resilience is just in its starting stage in China, it is extremely necessary and important to deeply explore and explain the mechanisms which resilience plays a positive role in keeping mental health under the stressful situation by Chinese sample.We invited 1253 university students to participate in this study through questionnaire which was used to explore the relationship among resilience, stress distress and adjustment. Four studies are conducted in this paper:The first part is to develop a Stress Distress Scale. We developed this scale on the basis of combination of stress and stress reactions theories and relevant studies on resilience by the method of questionnaires.In the second part, we conducted the correlation research among resilience, stress, stress distress, and adjustment. We collected data from university students by using several questionnaires to assess potential psychological mechanisms of resilience on stress and mental health.In the third part of our research, by the same means, we collected data to explore the meditational mechanism of the relationship between resilience and stress distress. We tried to verify the mediating effect among self-esteem, cognitive style of optimism, coping style and social support on resilience and stress distress by analyzing structure equation models, and also to verify the relationship among these assumed meditational variables. In the last part, through the same way, we collected data to explore the meditational mechanism of the relationship between resilience and adjustment. We verified the mediating effect among self-esteem, cognitive style of optimism, coping style and social support on resilience and adjustment by analyzing structure equation models and also verified the relationship among these assumed meditational variables.The results were found as follows:(1) The Stress Distress Scale consisted of 59 items, including four dimensions like depression, somatization, hostility and anxiety. The scale has good psychometric characteristics, and is suitable to measure the sort and intensity of stress reactions in healthy people.(2) Stress had significant predictability on both distress and adjustment. The less the intensity of stress was, the less severe the symptom of distress was, the better the adjustment was; Resilience had significant predictability on both distress and adjustment. The higher the level of resilience was, the less severe the symptom of distress was, the better the adjustment was; Resilience was a mediator between stress and stress distress.(3) self-esteem and cognitive regulation coping strategy partially mediated the relationship between resilience and stress distress; There were partially mediating effects of self-esteem, cognitive regulation coping strategy, and social support on associations between cognitive style of optimism and stress distress.(4) self-esteem, cognitive style of optimism, problem solution coping strategy, cognitive regulation coping strategy and perceived social support all mediated the relationship between resilience and adjustment; There were entirely mediating effects of emotion-focused coping strategies on associations between resilience and adjustment; self-esteem and cognitive regulation coping strategy were all partial mediator between the cognitive style of optimism and adjustment.Research results suggested that resilience could not only ease individuals' distress symptoms and promote their adjustment, but also release the negative influence induced by stress. People with higher level of resilience had higher level of self-esteem and the optimistically cognitive way to reality and future. They were like to flexibly exercise problem-focused coping strategies and emotion-focused coping strategies more, and could easily perceive more social support. According to these, they could overcome difficulties by utilizing resources inside and outside more efficiently and sufficiently, reduce distress, adapt themselves to environment and keep or promote the level of mental health. Consequently, resilience is an important resource which could help individuals resist the stress and protect mental health.