The relationships between personal resiliency and externalising and internalising problems in adolescence

Abstract

V Zunic-Pavlovic, M Pavlovic, M Kovacevic-Lepojevic, N. Glumbic, R. Kovacevic Objectives. The present study investigated the relative importance of multiple aspects of personal resiliency for the development of externalising and internalising adjustment problems in adolescence. Subjects and setting. The sample comprised 805 adolescents (45.2% boys and 54.8% girls) from seven high schools in Kraljevo, Serbia. The mean age of the adolescents was 16.71 (SD = 1.05; range 15-18 years). The participants filled out questionnaires concerning their personal resiliency and adjustment problems during school hours. Hypotheses. It was hypothesised that sense of mastery and sense of relatedness would be negatively associated with adjustment problems, whereas emotional reactivity would be positively related to externalising and internalising problems. Statistical analyses. Descriptive statistics and correlational and regression analyses were used. Results. The findings indicated that lower levels of sense of mastery and sense of relatedness and higher levels of emotional reactivity were related to antisocial behaviour, anger control problems, emotional distress and negative sense of self. Personal resiliency accounted for a significant amount of the variance (21-37%) in all types of adjustment problems. Further analyses revealed unique relationships between separate qualities of personal resilience and each type of adjustment problem. Study limitations. The present study is limited to one cultural setting and age group. The results were based on cross-sectional and self-reported data.