Cognitive Correlates of Resilience in Adults Experiencing Homelessness.

Objective: In adults who have experienced homelessness, greater psychological resilience is related to better quality of life, community functioning, and social cognition. Domain-specific cognitive functioning is positively associated with resilience in housed populations; however, these relationships have yet to be explored among adults experiencing homelessness. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between domain-specific cognitive function and psychological resilience among adults experiencing homelessness.

Method: One hundred and six adults who have experienced homelessness were recruited in Toronto, Canada, and 88 were included in analyses (51% female, mean age = 43 years). Study measures assessed psychological resilience as well as domain-specific cognition (vocabulary, oral reading, processing speed, episodic memory, and executive functioning) using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Additional covariates of interest included psychological distress, social network size, substance misuse, and major psychiatric disorders. Hierarchical regression modeling explored the contributions of each cognitive domain to resilience while accounting for established covariates.

Results: Oral reading was positively associated with higher resilience, explaining 12.45% of the variance in resilience while controlling for age, education, gender, substance misuse, psychological distress, and social network size. Performance on measures of executive functioning, processing speed, and visual memory were not found to be related to self-reported resilience.

Conclusion: The results suggest that verbal vocabulary, shaped by the accumulation of experiences across one's lifetime, may be an important contributor to psychological resilience. Better crystallized abilities may reflect more enriched early life experiences that are critical to better coping skills and well-being of adults experiencing homelessness.