Does well-being predict resilience in adolescents?

1. Does well-being predict resilience in adolescents? Paul Jose Victoria Univ. of Wellington New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology conference Auckland, New Zealand 8 June, 2013

2. Usual question: does resilience predict wellbeing? • Resilience is considered to be a characteristic/process that enables individuals to weather difficult times. Should be predictive of positive outcomes, or at least ‘less negative outcomes’. Considerable evidence of this relationship. • I am turning the equation around and asking the ‘broaden-and-build’ question: does wellbeing lead to greater resilience?

3. Risk and Resilience • In psychiatric theory and research, there is a long-standing interest in identifying risk factors in development • Risk factors are influences that heighten the odds of greater maladaptation, i.e., an alcoholic parent is predictive of poorer outcomes in children • Similarly, research has tried to identify factors that protect against maladaptation • Resilience factors lessen the odds of greater maladaptation, i.e., social resources like intact families as well as internal characteristics such as a sense of humour

4. Person-centred to process-oriented • Initial formulations of resilience located the “good stuff” in the person, i.e., “the invulnerable child” • But following Bronfenbrenner’s emphasis on the interactions between person and their multiple contexts, resilience research has evolved to become more process-oriented • Today, we believe that resilient children and adolescents possess certain qualities that allow them to interact with their contexts well

5. Typical definition • Resilience is imputed when one sees: • good outcomes regardless of high-risk status, • constant competence under stress, • recovery from trauma, and • using challenges for growth that makes future hardships more tolerable. • The emphasis, you will note, is on doing well in the face of hardship. • Growing consensus that resilient individuals are successful because of: • Adaptive coping strategies, • Successful emotion-regulation, and • Social resources

6. process model • Focus of the present study: Does a sense of greater well-being or positive affect foster or increase resilient tendencies one year later? • Based on Fredrickson’s “broaden-and-build” theory which states that higher positive affect fosters great competence and striving (resilience?) • We measured three constructs that we thought would be related to each other over time: • Self-reports of the self as resilient; • Positive affect; and • Well-being (aspirations; pos relations with others; and confidence) • We sought to test the particular process model presented on the next page

7. Do happy, well-adjusted adolescents evidence greater resilience over time? Well-being Resilient self-desc Positive Affect

8. The youth connectedness project • Jan Pryor and I received financial support from the FRST Foundation to study adolescent development over three years time • Focus of this research endeavour was to study the function of social connectedness in promoting better adjustment in adolescents • It is a large scale longitudinal study (once a year for three years) largely representative of NZ youth

9. Sample • 1,774 New Zealand adolescents (10-15 years at Y1) participated in a self-report study annually for three years • Recruited from about 100 schools scattered around the North Island • Almost a nationally representative sample: fewer rural kids, overrepresentation of Maori, no South Island participants • All measures yielded Cronbach’s alphas > .80.

10. Measures • Wagnild and Young’s Resilience Scale (1993). The four items were: • “I keep myself busy and interested in things”, • “I try not to take things too seriously”, • “My belief in myself gets me through hard times” and • “I can find a way to fix my problems” • Well-being consisted of three subscales of 3 or 4 items each adapted from the Ryff Wellbeing Scales (Ryff & Keyes, 1995): • aspirations, • positive relations with others, and • Confidence • Positive affect(e.g., “I was happy”)

11. results • A repeated-measures MANOVA showed that: • Positive affect and well-being decreased slightly over 3 years, but • Resilience did not change much • These results are generally supportive of the idea that resilience is trait-like, and that adolescent positive affect decreases during middle adolescence

12. Latent variable longitudinal path models: proposed model Positive Affect T1 Positive Affect T2 Positive Affect T3 Well-being T2 Well-being T3 Well-being T1 Resilience T1 Resilience T2 Resilience T3

13. Obtained model Positive Affect T1 Positive Affect T2 Positive Affect T3 .13*** .16*** Well-being T2 Well-being T3 Well-being T1 .20*** .24*** .07* .15*** Resilience T1 Resilience T2 Resilience T3

14. What is important here? • It seems that we obtained some support for Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory in that an adolescent with higher well-being at a given point in time is likely to report higher resilience at a later point in time (residualised: change in resilience). • Positive affect (being happy) seems to be an outcome, not a driver of later states • Resilience fosters greater well-being, and well-being in turn fosters greater resilience • Next step? A study of mechanisms.

15. What mediates between resilience and WB?

16. Simpler depiction Resilience slope Well-being Slope Social provisions slope “Slope” refers to change in the variable over the three times of measurement.

17. Latent growth curve mediation • Might “social provisions” (Cutrona & Russell, 1987) (positive aspects of social support) mediate between resilience and well-being • Answer: Yes. We found a significant bootstrapped indirect effect; about 37% of the total effect was mediated through social provisions.

18. How about the reverse?WB => SocProv => Resilience • Answer: No. • Thus, it seems that well-being does not promote resilience through increasing social provisions.

19. What mediates between resilience and Well-being?

20. What mediates between well-being and resilience?

21. What have we learned? • Resilience seems to lead to both increased positive attributes AND decreased negative attributes, which in turn lead to greater well-being: • Higher social provisions (Cutrona & Russell) • Lower lack of self-confidence, avoidance • Well-being seems to lead to greater resilience only through reductions in negative dynamics: • Lower lack of self-confidence, rumination, and avoidance • Not perfectly symmetrical, interesting to note

22. Future directions • We need to separate the hedonic (being happy) from the eudaimonic (meaning of life) better so that we can identify how each contributes to resilience separately • How do these variables relate to coping strategies (problem-solving, reframing, etc.), social support, and social connectedness? • We intend to investigate moderators as well: age, gender, ethnicity, rural/urban, etc.

23. A brief description of an intervention • The YCP dataset is a subject variable study: nothing is manipulated. • Can resilience be fostered? The previous findings suggest that it can, but how? • Olivia Notter and I set out to explicitly increase resilience in a small group of at-risk 13-yr-olds (key findings from her PhD thesis)

24. Comparison of two interventions • Kiwi-Ace: a CBT-based programme designed to reduce depression by reducing illogical thinking • PAL (Positive Approaches to Life): our own programme designed to encourage the use of various positive psychology techniques: • Gratitude • Identifying strengths (& using them) • Enjoying life (savouring and obtaining flow) • Building relationships • Liking who I am

25. Small groups • 27 in Kiwi-Ace, 38 in PAL, and equal numbers of control individuals • Obtained from 9 secondary schools in the lower North Island • Participants were recruited after a mass screening (over 1,000 students), we approached at-risk adolescents who were mid-range in depressive symptoms on the CDI

26. Procedure • Small groups of 13-yr-olds received twelve one-hour sessions during class time over twelve consecutive weeks. • Sessions were provided by the in-school guidance counsellor plus an external clinical psychologist specifically trained in the two interventions. • Assessed on all variables immediately after the intervention ended (T2), 6 months later (T3), and 12 months later (T4).

27. Results: effect of Kiwi-Ace on depression

28. Results: effect of pal on depression

29. Let’s focus on pal • We expected that PAL would lead to increases in a variety of positive outcomes: • Psychological well-being • Satisfaction with life • Subjective happiness • Gratitude • Resilience • Yes to all of these variables at all three subsequent time points

30. Pal led to an increase in self-reported resilience

31. Any evidence for what led to greater resilience? • We performed a set of longitudinal mediation analyses, and found the following mediators between PAL and subsequent resilience: • Gratitude • Life satisfaction • Subjective happiness

32. What have we learned? • With both a subject variable and a quasi-experimental study, we saw that certain variables seem to foster greater resilience • Common thread between the two studies: well-being and happiness seems to “broaden and build” a young person’s ability to weather stressful events • I particularly like gratitude as a mechanism: young people who feel entitled tend to be brittle, whereas young people who appreciate the good things in their lives tend to be more resilient/realistic.

33. Future directions • I think a large-scale replication of the PAL intervention is merited after these promising preliminary findings • Geelong Grammar School project (with input from Martin Seligman) seeks to do something similar

34. Thanks for your time and attention • For more information: paul.jose@vuw.ac.nz • Thanks to Olivia Notter, the YCP research team, all participants, schools, and school personnel.