Procesos de afrontamiento y factores de personalidad como predictores de la resiliencia en adolescentes: validación de un modelo estructural

To determine the factors on which educators should focus to favour resilience development in adolescence. This study tests two predictive models of the hypothetical relationships between two kinds of predictors -coping styles and resiliency personality factors- and resilience as criterion. A total of 1,078 Spanish children (12-18 years old) from four different Spanish schools participated in the study. In order to determine to what extent the variables in the model predict resilience, four path analyses with latent variables (PALV) were performed: two for testing each model, and the remaining two for cross-validation. Results showed that perceived improvement in resilience depends mainly on coping strategies and styles in the expected direction, and that resiliency (personality) factors mediate the effect of coping styles, but their direct effect is very small. Moreover, the effect of “sense of relatedness” was contrary to expectations as regards previous studies. A hypothetical explanation of this result is suggested.