FAMILY ADVERSITY FACTORS AND EXTERNAL RESOURCES OF RESILIENCE IN A ONE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Abstract

Objectives: External resources of resilience along with internal assets facilitate the healthy development of adolescents and eventually contribute to overcoming adversity. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the factors which enhance or reduce external resources of resilience. The main goal of this study is to explore the role of adversity factors: adolescents – parental conflict, antagonism and punishment and family structure in explaining perceived external resources of resilience – school meaningful participation and community meaningful participation in a one-year follow-up. Methods: 146 (49% girls) adolescents (T1 mean age=13.51) participated in a repeated measures design with a 12-month follow-up. External resources of resilience (School meaningful participation (SMP) and Community meaningful participation (CMP)) were measured by the RYDM questionnaire. Parental conflict, antagonism and punishment were assessed by the NRI-SPV questionnaire separately for the mother and father. The family structure was dichotomized (both biological parents vs. other). Results: The linear regression revealed that having something other than biological family is associated with lower SMP and CMP over the year while controlling for SMP and CMP at T1. Moreover, higher punishment from the father is associated with lower SMP while higher antagonism with the mother is associated with higher CMP after one year. In addition, the findings confirmed a moderation effect of gender and father punishment on SMP. This shows that the probability of lower SMP at T2 is higher for boys with a higher level of punishment by the father at T1. Conclusion: Family structure is a key factor in contributing to lower external resources of resilience. Father punishment negatively contributes to SMP, although not CMP. Mother antagonism positively contributes to CMP but not SMP. The moderation effect of gender between father punishment and SMP implies a greater sensitivity of boys towards father punishment and a potential inhibition effect on participation at school in comparison to girls. Interestingly, antagonism with the mother contributes to higher CMP which reveals the potential self-protection mechanism of adolescents in compensating antagonism with the mother for meaningful participation in different environments such as the community. However, there is a failure to compensate at school when the punishment from the father is greater.