Sense of coherence and students’ adverse life events. Do the adversities enhance?

Abstract

Objective – The aim of the study was to: 1) describe the range and the intensity of adverse events in the student’s life, and 2) determine relationships between selected characteristics of adverse events experienced by students, sense of coherence and effective solution of adverse event. It was assumed that there are four results of adverse event: resistance, recovery, thriving and worsening. The consequences of adverse life events can be destructive but sometimes brings some profits. Methods – 239 high school students participated in the study (54% women). They responded to questionnaires measuring sense of coherence (SOC-29) and “Adverse events in your life” describing 14 adverse life events in the last year. Results – Adverse life events were often experienced in the last year. Thriving was the result of four adverse events. Stepwise regression analyses (37% of explained variation in men and 29% in women) showed that differentiation of successfully going through an adverse life event was explained to the largest extent by sense of meaningfulness in women (β = 0.39), while in men, by sense of manageability (β = 0.56). Conclusions – Results indicate that sense of coherence is an important variable for successful coping with adverse life event.