Affective and interpersonal processes relating to psychological resilience

Background: This study aimed to examine the role of affective and interpersonal processes in the relationship between trait resilience and psychiatric symptoms. Methods: A total of 284 Chinese university students were recruited and administered questionnaires that assessed trait resilience (Resiliency Scale), positive rumination (Responses to Positive Affect), negative rumination (Response Style Questionnaire), adult attachment styles (Relationship Structures questionnaire), relationship satisfaction (Relationship Assessment Scale), anxiety symptoms (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory II). Findings: Latent-variable structural equation modeling revealed that affective and interpersonal processes mediated the association between trait resilience and psychiatric symptoms. The inverse association between trait resilience and psychiatric symptoms became positive in the mediation model, suggesting that the associations between trait resilience and psychiatric symptoms could be observed only after considering the impact of the two processes. Discussion: This study provided evidence on specific underlying affective and interpersonal processes of resilience and possible direction for intervening resilience.