Honors College Theses

Publication Date

4-6-2014

Major

Psychology (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Jeff Klibert

Abstract

It is imperative that college students cultivate and exhibit traits associated with resilience to successfully complete their course of study and to protect themselves against the onset of mental health issues. This study aimed to examine positive psychology variables in relation to resilience in order to find variables that promote resilience in college students. Wisdom, hope, and coping self-efficacy were examined amongst 436 undergraduate students. Ethnicity amongst the sample consisted with 136 self-reporting as African American (31.9%), 264 self-reporting as European American (60.6%), 3 self-reporting as Asian (0.7%), 2 self-reporting as Native American (0.5%), and 28 self-reporting as biracial (6.4%). Participants volunteered to take a survey, which provided the data for this study. Results suggested wisdom, hope, and coping self-efficacy were positively related to resilience. Regression analysis revealed coping self-efficacy and trait hope as unique predictors of resilience for African American students. Regression analysis also revealed wisdom as a unique predictor for European Americans, but not African Americans. This finding suggests the need for a measure of wisdom that is inclusive of African American values of wisdom. Further examination in these findings may ultimately lead to a better understanding of hardiness development during the collegiate years.

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