Exploring the connection between ego-resiliency and health behaviors: a cross-sectional study of Polish health sciences students.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between ego-resiliency and the intensity of health behaviors among Polish health sciences students. METHODS: The study involved 483 students from health-related faculties in southern Poland, consisting of 314 women (63.7%) and 179 men (36.3%). The average age of the participants was 21.7 ± 2.5 years. To assess resiliency (ER), the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89-R12) by Block and Kremen was used in its Polish adaptation. The intensity of health behaviors was examined using the Health Behavior Inventory (HBI) developed by Z. Juczynski. RESULTS: The results revealed a positive correlation between the intensity of health behaviors and ER (r = 0.43, p < 0.001), both for the general factor and its categories (positive mental attitude, proper eating habits, preventive actions, and prohealth activities). Students with a high level of health behaviors exhibited significantly higher ER (M = 38.95, SD = 5.15) compared to those with average (M = 35.93, SD = 5.03) and low (M = 32.97, SD = 5.12) HBI levels. Among the HBI categories, Positive Mental Attitude showed the strongest correlation with both general ER and its factors: optimal regulation (OR) and openness to life experiences (OL). Furthermore, the correlation was found to be stronger with the OR and weaker with OL. CONCLUSION: Higher ER in students is correlated with a greater frequency of health behaviors. Nurturing the development of ER may contribute to the maintenance of prohealth practices despite life difficulties and temporary loss of motivation. This, in turn, promotes the regularity of health behaviors, which is crucial for their positive impact on overall health.

The interplay between ego-resiliency, math anxiety and working memory in math achievement.

Previous research has suggested that math anxiety may contribute to poor math performance by interfering with working memory. However, only a limited number of studies investigated the mediating role of working memory in the math anxiety-math performance link in school-aged children. Unlike math anxiety, ego-resiliency is a personality resource that promotes the management of challenges and has been positively associated with math performance and negatively with anxiety. Nevertheless, there is still limited understanding regarding the specific role of ego-resiliency in math learning and how it relates to math anxiety. This study aimed to investigate conjunctly the interplay between primary school children's ego-resiliency, math anxiety, working memory, and performance on two different math tasks (i.e., arithmetic task and word problem-solving task), after controlling for general anxiety and age. The study involved 185 Italian children from grades 3 to 5. Serial multi-mediational analyses revealed that: (1) ego-resiliency has a positive indirect effect on math achievement through two paths - math anxiety, and math anxiety and working memory; (2) the study replicated previous findings showing that working memory partially mediated the relationship between math anxiety and math performance; (3) similar patterns of results were found for both math skills. The study identifies ego-resiliency as a possible protective factor in the development of math anxiety and suggests that ego-resiliency could be worth considering when designing interventions aimed at reducing negative emotions towards mathematics.

The relationship between resilience and neurophysiological stress in Special Operations Forces combat service members.

Military resilience research is increasing due to the growing literature associating resilience with stress adaptation. This study aimed to investigate which physiological stress adaptation components were associated with resilience in Special Operations Forces combat service members. Special Operations Forces combat service members (n = 117) self-reported resilience (ER89) and lifetime clinician-confirmed mild traumatic brain injury history. Participants also underwent transcranial Doppler ultrasonography to measure middle cerebral artery velocity during rest and a breath-holding task. Neither resilience nor mild traumatic brain injury history was significantly associated with middle cerebral artery velocity percent increase following breath-holding; younger Special Operations Forces combat service members had a higher percent increase in middle cerebral artery velocity following a breath-holding task. Resilience was negatively associated with time to return to baseline middle cerebral artery velocity following peak velocity; whereas, mild traumatic brain injury history did not have a significant association. The Special Operations Forces combat service members that scored higher in resilience tended to return to baseline middle cerebral artery velocity following peak velocity faster than their less resilient counterparts. More resilient Special Operations Forces combat service members recovered faster from physiological stress (breath-holding) than less resilient counterparts. This is the first study to investigate resilience and cerebrovascular stress response and recovery in this population. Our initial findings indicated that the Ego Resiliency Scale may be an optimal resilience psychometric and should be used to evaluate effective military resilience trainings, which aim to improve performance and mental health.

Ego-resiliency moderates the risk of depression and social anxiety symptoms on suicidal ideation in medical students.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the role of protective factors in suicidal ideation among medical students. This study aimed to examine the association between suicidal ideation and protective (self-esteem/ego-resiliency/social support) and risk (depression/social anxiety) factors. METHODS: Data on sociodemographic factors, depression, social anxiety, self-esteem, ego-resiliency, social support, and current suicidal ideation were collected from 408 medical students. A logistic regression model was constructed to identify the independent impact of potential influencing factors on suicidal ideation. Potential moderating effects were also explored. RESULTS: Thirty-eight participants (9.3%) reported experiencing suicidal ideation. Younger age, higher levels of depression, social anxiety, and lower levels of self-esteem, ego-resiliency, and social support were found to be significantly correlated with suicidal ideation. In the final model, higher levels of depression and social anxiety were associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation, while higher levels of self-esteem and social support were associated with a decreased risk of suicidal ideation. Although the independent effect was not significant, the interactions of ego-resiliency with both depression and social anxiety on suicidal ideation were significant. Higher levels of ego-resiliency acted as a buffer against suicidal ideation among those with higher levels of depression or social anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to risk factors, this study revealed the underlying protective and moderating factors of suicidal ideation among medical students. Mental health programs focusing on enhancing ego-resiliency, self-esteem, and social support may contribute to suicide prevention in medical students.

Profiles of emerging adults' resilience facing the negative impact of COVID-19 across six countries.

Although emerging adults (i.e., individuals aged 18-29 years old) may be at a lesser risk of COVID-19 severe illness and mortality, studies have found that the negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health and well-being is higher among emerging adults when compared to other age groups. The current study aimed to identify profile(s) based on resilience resources, which could help emerging adults in managing the disruptions to their lives following the pandemic. A cross-national sample of 1,768 emerging adults from China, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and the US was utilized to identify profiles based on different resilience dimensions (ego-resiliency, positivity, religiosity, socioeconomic status, family support, peer support). Results of the Latent Profile Analysis suggest the presence of four different profiles: no resources, only peer, only family, and well-equipped. The association of these profiles with demographic variables, adulthood markers, self-perceived COVID-19 impact, present well-being, and future life perception was investigated. Implications for resilience theory as well as for future interventions are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03658-y.

The effect of ego-resiliency and COVID-19-related stress on mental health among the Japanese population.

Due to the negative psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, it is necessary to study the factors that improve mental health. In this study, we evaluated changing income, self-restraint, fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, stress, and ego-resiliency, to investigate the main and moderating effects of ego-resiliency on psychological distress. We analyzed 222 Japanese samples from the dataset of Primary Survey in Japan (PSJ) in the Resilience to COVid-19 in Each Region (RE-COVER) project. The results showed significant main effects of ego-resiliency on depression and stress, and a significant interaction effect of self-restraint and ego-resiliency on depression. We also tested the significance of the moderating effect of ego-resiliency on the relationship between self-restraint and depression. The simple slope of ego-resiliency was only significant for individuals with high self-restraint. Our findings provide empirical evidence on mental health associated with the COVID-19 pandemic among the Japanese population, proving that ego-resiliency functioned to cope with the specific stresses associated with COVID-19.

The link between ego-resiliency, social support, SARS-CoV-2 anxiety and trauma effects. Polish adaptation of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale.

Reports to date have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may have a negative impact on individuals' mental health. The purpose of this study was to assess the relation between ego-resiliency, social support, coronavirus anxiety and trauma effects. The study employed the Polish adaptation of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS). It involved 515 individuals aged 18-78. The Polish version of CAS revealed satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.86). Structural equation modeling indicated that ego-resiliency (the Ego-Resiliency Scale) and social support (the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support) were correlated and negatively predicted the severity of the novel coronavirus anxiety (CAS). Moreover, the level of anxiety showed positive correlation with negative trauma effects (the short form of the Changes in Outlook Questionnaire). The scores indicate the need for practitioners to focus on interventions which elevate ego-resiliency and perceived social support to improve mental health during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Ego-resiliency in borderline personality disorder and the mediating role of positive and negative affect on its associations with symptom severity and quality of life in daily life.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental health condition associated with severe symptoms of distress and poor quality of life (QoL). Research outside the field of BPD suggests that ego-resiliency is negatively associated with psychopathology and positively associated with a range of positive life outcomes. Thus, ego-resiliency may be a valuable construct for furthering our understanding and treatment of BPD. However, the mechanisms linking ego-resiliency to psychopathology and QoL in relation to BPD have not been examined and explored by research. This study has addressed this gap in the collective knowledge by evaluating whether within-person associations between daily reports of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) mediated the relationship between ego-resiliency, BPD symptom severity, and QoL. For 21 consecutive days, 72 women diagnosed with BPD completed end-of-day electronic assessments regarding ego-resiliency, PA and NA, symptom severity, and QoL. Multilevel structural equation modelling established that PA and NA were parallel mediators linking ego-resiliency with BPD symptom severity and QoL. As hypothesized, the path to QoL was stronger through PA than through NA. The mediation paths through NA and PA to BPD symptom severity were both significant, but their strength did not differ. Our findings align with the assertions of theories on emotion, thus suggesting a two-factor approach to PA and NA. Future research can build on these findings by developing psychotherapeutic interventions designed not only to reduce symptom severity but also to enhance PA in individuals with BPD and determine whether an increase in PA is associated with improved QoL.

The role of partner support, ego-resiliency, prenatal attitudes towards maternity and pregnancy in psychological well-being of women in high-risk and low-risk pregnancy.

We have shown by multiple regression analyses that partner support (as an external source of support) and ego-resiliency (as a personality trait and internal source of support) are significant factors contributing to pregnant women's satisfaction with many different domains of psychological well-being (PWB), such as positive relations with others, self-acceptance, and environmental mastery, facilitating better psychological adaptation to pregnancy and motherhood. Type of pregnancy (high-risk or low-risk) is important for two areas of PWB of pregnant women, namely positive relations with others and self-acceptance. The attitudes towards maternity and pregnancy are weaker predictor than ego-resiliency and partner support and they are significant only for one PWB dimension - autonomy. Positive or negative attitudes towards motherhood and the unborn child depend on the education level. They are less stable factors than ego-resiliency. Empirical evidence is found for the moderating role of the pregnancy type (low- vs. high-risk) in the relationships between support from partner and two dimensions of PWB: positive relations with others and purpose in life. The received partner support helps women in high-risk pregnancy with positive psychological functioning, especially in maintaining the belief that their life is purposeful and in sustaining quality relationships with others.

Coping and Life Satisfaction: Mediating Role of Ego-Resiliency in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: Ego-resiliency is attributed the status of a "meta resource" that is responsible for a flexible selection of coping strategies depending on the requirements of a specific difficult situation. A considerably burdensome critical life event is the development of a chronic illness such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Apart from coping with the symptoms, a fundamental task confronting patients is maintaining their quality of life. This raises the question of whether ego-resiliency serves as a mediator between coping strategies and quality of life. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 210 RA patients were invited to participate in this study. They were requested to complete a questionnaire that included the Satisfaction with Life scale, the stress coping inventory Mini-COPE, and the Ego-Resiliency scale. The collected data were analyzed by a simple mediation procedure and estimation of simple correlation coefficients. RESULTS: The analysis demonstrated that ego-resiliency (r = 0.46; p < 0.001) and emotion-focused coping (r = 0.39; p < 0.001) determined life satisfaction. Additionally, ego-resiliency mediated the relation between emotion-oriented coping strategies and life satisfaction. Partial mediation was observed (a = 0.45**; b = 0.36**; c = 0.39**; c' =0.22**; R2 = 0.24; F = 35.65; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our observations partly support the assumption about a controlling role of ego-resiliency in the process of selecting coping strategies according to demands of situations.

Bifactor model of effortful control and impulsivity and their prospective prediction of ego resiliency.

OBJECTIVE: Children's effortful control and impulsivity are important predictors of the personality trait, ego resiliency (i.e., resiliency). Most researchers have not considered the fact that effortful control and impulsivity share substantial conceptual and empirical overlap, yet they also have been shown to be distinct. We tested a bifactor model of effortful control and impulsivity to characterize their shared and unique variance, the prospective prediction of resiliency by the factors of the bifactor model, and moderation by sex and age. METHOD: In a longitudinal study of children (N = 214; 76.5% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 12.2% Hispanic, 11.3% other race/ethnicity), parent- and teacher-reported effortful control and impulsivity, as well as behavioral measures of effortful control, were assessed on two occasions (T1: 4.5-8 years; T2: 6-10 years). Parent-reported resiliency was used as a covariate (T1) and the outcome (T3: 8-12 years). RESULTS: The bifactor model yielded a common effortful inhibitory control factor, pure attentional control factor, and pure impulsivity factor. Pure impulsivity and pure attentional control positively predicted resiliency, but only for girls. Effortful inhibitory control did not uniquely predict resiliency. CONCLUSION: Disentangling the shared and unique aspects of effortful control and impulsivity could clarify the roles they play in important outcomes, such as resiliency.

[Personality Assessment as Contribution to Diagnostic Differentiation Between ADHD and RAD in Middle Childhood]. / Persönlichkeitserfassung als Beitrag zur Differentialdiagnostik zwischen Patienten mit ADHS und Bindungsstörung in der mittleren Kindheit.

Personality Assessment as Contribution to Diagnostic Differentiation Between ADHD and RAD in Middle Childhood Early and prolonged social and emotional deprivation can result in symptoms of both ADHD and attachment disorder (RAD). The present study compares children between 7 and 13 years of age diagnosed with either ADHD or RAD, regarding their disorder specific behavior by using the Conners Rating Scale, a RAD screening scale, the overall psychopathology in the CASCAP-D, and the children's personality using the California Child-Q-sort (CCQ). The RAD group showed an increased overall psychopathology score and both increased ADHD and RAD symptomatology. In addition, they also were characterized as lower in self-regulatory personality characteristics (e. g. ego-resiliency). The results suggest that children with a RAD diagnosis do not show two comorbid disorders (RAD plus ADHD) but are characterized by an even more intense deficit of self-regulation in social and emotional contexts, compared to the children of the pure ADHD group. This should be considered in diagnosis and treatment.

Prevalence and related factors of depressive symptoms in hemodialysis patients in northern China.

BACKGROUND: To determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and to explore related factors of depressive symptoms in hemodialysis (HD) patients in northern China. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional research design to recruit 227 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who were undergoing HD treatment in northern China during December, 2012 to March, 2013. The Chinese edition of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) was used to measure depressive symptoms. Information on quality of life (QOL), activities of daily living (ADL), social support status, coping style, self-efficacy, ego resiliency and demographic characteristics was all collected by face to face interview. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore related factors of depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among HD patients was 29.1%. Patients with a lower mood have worse ADL and QOL than patients with better mood. Patients with a lower mood have got less social support than patients with better mood, including both family support and outside family support. For coping style, patients with a lower mood were more inclined to choose "acceptance-resignation" coping style than patients with better mood, while the result is opposite in "avoidance" coping style. And patients with a better mood have better self-efficacy and ego resiliency than patients with lower mood. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that ADL (OR = 1.124, p = 0.002), family support (OR = 0.867, p = 0.021), "acceptance-resignation" coping style (OR = 1.228, p = 0.022), and ego resiliency (OR = 0.944, p = 0.021) were associated with low mood independently. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms is high in CKD patients on HD in northern China. activities of daily living, family support, "acceptance-resignation" coping style and ego resiliency were independently associated with depressive symptoms.

The Role of Ego-Resiliency as Mediator of the Longitudinal Relationship between Family Socio-Economic Status and School Grades.

Family socio-economic status (SES) represents one of the major determinants of youth's scholastic achievement, and thus it is important to unravel the psychological factors underlining this relation. In this article, we examined youth's ability to flexibly adapt and, thus, cope with harsh environmental conditions-assessed by the construct of ego-resiliency-as a mediating mechanism in the across-time association between family SES and academic achievement. The longitudinal sample was composed of 265 (56% females) Italian students who were about 13 years old at Time 1 (T1) and about 18 years old at Time 2 (T2). In a structural equation model analysis, family SES significantly predicted ego-resiliency 6 years later while controlling for the latter's strong longitudinal stability. Students' school grades at the end of senior high school were also predicted by ego-resiliency assessed at the age of 13, controlling for grades in the last year of junior high school, gender, and initial differences in ages. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, this study provided support for a two-wave meditational model in which the relation between family SES at 13 years and later school grades at 19 years was mediated by ego-resiliency. All in all, results support the argument that being resilient, and thus being able to flexibly adapt one's own emotional state and resultant behavior, matters to school success.

Ego-resiliency development from late adolescence to emerging adulthood: A ten-year longitudinal study.

This study examined the development of ego-resiliency from late adolescence to emerging adulthood, using a 10-year cohort-sequential design. Participants were 335 Italian adolescents (173 females and 162 males), living, at the time of the study, in Genzano, a small city near to Rome. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that the developmental trajectory of ego-resiliency from 15 to 25 years is adequately described by a piecewise model that included separate growth profiles corresponding to different developmental stages. Essentially, ego-resiliency remained remarkably stable until the end of high school, and then encountered a phase of relative increase. Moreover, the trajectory of ego-resiliency from ages 15 to 19 was predicted by self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative emotions, and the trajectory from age 19 to 25 was predicted by experienced familial support and self-efficacy beliefs in expressing positive emotions at age 15. Experienced stressful life events also accounted for individuals' deviation from the typical ego-resiliency trajectory.

Urban safety and psychological distress during the pandemic: the results of a longitudinal study.

Introduction: In the last decades, a large body of literature has explored the topic of perceived safety and fear of crime in urban environments. The effects of psychological factors on such feelings have been studied, but rarely using prospective studies, and never when these factors intercept a worldwide dramatic event like the pandemic. This research aimed to analyze the variations of the feelings of urban safety during the pandemic, the role of resiliency and the effect of psychological stressors such as anxiety, stress, and depression. Methods: During 2019 and 2022, before and after the pandemic, a face-to-face interview was administered to the same group of 195 participants. The PUSAS scale was used to measure unsafety, the ER89-R to assess for resiliency, the DASS-21 to collect data about the general distress (anxiety, stress and depression), and the CAS scale was used to evaluate the specific coronavirus anxiety. Structural equation models were applied to test a theoretical framework grounded on the relationships between these measures. Results: The research findings showed decreased feelings of unsafety across the pandemic, consistent with the literature. The positive effect of ego-resiliency was significant but only for its interaction with data collected before the pandemic, whilst stress and anxiety impacted unsafety in 2022 through different pathways. None of the symptoms of general distress influenced the concern about crime and sense of vulnerability, as the feelings of unsafety were found independent from the variations of the specific coronavirus anxiety. Discussion: Although the research findings did not confirm the impact of coronavirus, they presented some facets that disconfirm what the literature reported about the relationships between psychological distress and fear of crime. Implications about measurement issues are discussed.

Beyond metacognition: The dominant role of the general factor of personality in learning adaptation.

The notions of metacognition and ego-resilienc seem to commonly represent an ability to adaptively adjust self-control to fit the requirements of environments. The latter presents a general mechanism of adaptive adjustment while the former presents a specific example of learning activity. As ego-resiliency was almost fully indicated by the General Factor of Personality (GFP) as the literature suggested, the present study tested the relationship between the GFP and metacognition and then compared their influences on learning adaptation. As found, the GFP highly overlapped with overall metacognition (r = 0.69). Within the three dimensions of metacognition, metacognitive skills correlated with the GFP much higher than metacognitive knowledge and experience, suggesting that the GFP is more linked with the application of metacognition in learning. By comparison, the GFP displayed much higher correlations with metacognitive skills and experience as well as learning adaptation than any Big Five traits, showing its incremental power in correlation with those variables. More importantly, in the mediation model, the GFP was found to be the root reason for the outcomes of learning adaptation and accounted for most of the impact of metacognition on learning adaptation. With these findings, the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

"Faith Is Not Enough?" Ego-Resiliency and Religiosity as Coping Resources with Pandemic Stress-Mediation Study.

Based on the concepts of Pargament's adaptational functions of religiosity, Huber's centrality of religiosity, and Block's conceptualisation of ego-resiliency as psychosocial resources, a nonexperimental, moderated mediation project was designed for a group of 175 women and 57 men who voluntarily participated in an online study to determine whether and to what extent religiosity mediated or moderated the relationship between ego-resiliency and the severity of PTSD and depression during the COVID-19 epidemic. The analyses carried out showed that the studied variables, ego-resiliency and centrality of religiosity, were predictors of the intensity of some psychopathological reactions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic but were not connected via a mediation relationship. Therefore, one question remains open: what is the role of ego-resiliency and the nature of the stated immunogenic effect of the centrality of religiosity in dealing with the critical threat to mental health that is the COVID-19 pandemic?

The role of core self-evaluations and ego-resiliency in predicting resource losses and gains in the face of the COVID-19 crisis: the perspective of conservation of resources theory.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to investigate, through the lens of conservation of resources theory, the predictive role of 2 positive personality traits in the form of core self-evaluations (CSE) and ego-resiliency (ER) in resource losses and gains triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The 2 personality traits, constituting positive person-related resources, were examined in relation to resource losses and gains in both general and distinct life domains: hedonistic and vital, spiritual, family, economic and political, and finally power and prestige. RESULTS: The findings from a nationwide sample of 1000 working adults (65% women; age M±SD 38.93±10.9 years) indicated that CSE negatively predicted resource losses, whereas ER served as a positive predictor of resource gains. The predictive role of personality traits was demonstrated both for resource losses and gains in general and in different life domains. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study highlight in particular the role of CSE as a protective factor of resource losses, and the role of ER as a promotive factor of resource gains, suggesting that both traits might evoke divergent resilience responses when facing prolonged stressful life events. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(4):551-62.

How to measure ego-resiliency in the face of various life-changing crises: Measurement invariance, convergent and discriminant validity and reliability of the Polish version of the Revised Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89-R12).

This study examines the generalizability of the latent structure of the Polish version of the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89-R12), a brief self-report scale that measures ego-resiliency. We investigated the measurement invariance, validity, and reliability of ER89-R12 among three groups of individuals who were facing various major, long-term, life-changing crises (N = 512): parents of children with Down's syndrome, women with breast cancer, and individuals after divorce. The analysis of the measurement invariance confirmed the two-factor structure of the questionnaire and the high reliability of this measure in those studied groups. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across the three groups. Moreover, the correlation patterns were similar across the groups. Ego-resiliency was strongly and consistently positively correlated with mental health: psychological well-being, perceived social support, self-esteem, and post-traumatic growth, and negatively correlated with perceived stress. The presented results indicate the potential usefulness of the ER89-R12 tool in studies on people experiencing various crises in their lives.