Resiliency and social support as factors promoting the process of resilience in adolescents – wards of children’s homes

Abstract

<b>Background</b></b><br /> The aim of the study was to investigate whether in a group of adolescents – wards of children’s homes – the process of resilience occurs and to determine the role of resiliency (understood as a personality trait) and social support in this process. At least an average level of sense of quality of life was an indicator of resilience.<br /> <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> Results of 60 adolescents were analyzed, among them 29 boys and 31 girls, aged 11-17 years (M = 14.80, SD = 2.00). The Subjective Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, the Resiliency Assessment Scale, and the Social Support Questionnaire were used in the study.<br /> <br /> <b>Results</b><br /> Fifty-one and sixty one-hundredths percent of participants revealed at least an average level of sense of quality of life. Higher levels of resiliency and social support were found in subjects with a higher level of sense of quality of life. Resiliency and social support were found to be predictors of sense of quality of life in the examined group of adolescents, but resiliency has greater predictive power. Among resiliency factors, optimistic attitude and energy play the essential role in predicting sense of quality of life, and among the types of social support, information support is most important.<br /> <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> The results indicate that personal resources play a more important role in occurrence of the process of resilience than social resources.