Scholarly record

RESILIENCE AS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE DISHARMONIC TENDENCIES IN PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT AND POTENTIALLY TRAUMATIC LIFE EVENTS DURING ADOLESCENCE

Maria-Simona S. Glaveanu

Abstract

Different studies indicate that problems occurring during adolescence can impact the appearance of disharmonic tendencies in the development of personality [1]; nevertheless, other studies show that some adults show no signs of such tendencies, as they possess the psychological capacity of resilience [2] [3]. The general objective of this research was to analyse the Romanian adolescents’ resilience in relation to disharmonic tendencies during the structuring of personality. The subjects were 62 adolescents from Bucharest, aged 16 to 18; 31 of them (having experienced certain potentially traumatic life events during adolescence) entered the risk group, while the rest (who had not experienced such events) became the “normal” one. The research method was the questionnaire-based survey, using the Adolescents’ Resilience Evaluation Scale (ARES), developed by the author of this research, and the Woodworth-Mathews Questionnaire for evaluating disharmonic tendencies. ARES has reliability, as indicated by the Cronbach-alpha values for each dimension (0,7 to 0,82), and the content validity was determined by concepts from the existing literature and also using the Delphi method (10 experts). The results showed significant (p<0,05) negative correlations between the sub-scales of resilience and the disharmonic tendencies in the development of personality, as follows: between tenacity-efficiency and paranoid (r=-0,71) and instability (r=-0,87) tendencies; fast recovery from trauma and impulsive (r=-0,77) and obsessive (r=-0,8) tendencies; the capacity of learning from negative life experiences and obsessive (r=-0,82) tendencies; self confidence and depressive (r=-0,78) and paranoid (r=-0,88) tendencies. Also, the risk group had higher means in all the disharmonic tendencies than the normal group, having statistically significant differences (p<0,001) both with homogeneity of variance and without it. In conclusion: 1. ARES has statistically adequate psychometric properties but, considering the small number of subjects, its use was more a pilot study, so the test-retest method will be applied using larger sample groups and the concurrent validity will continue to be investigated as the scale was only content-validated; 2. The dimensions of resilience are in inverse correlations with the disharmonic tendencies in personality development; 3. The risk group has more disharmonic personality tendencies the normal one.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/3.2/S11.049

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