The effects of stressful life events on psychological well-being and possible buffering factors

Objective: This study was to investigate the personal resources and family resources in buffering the distress during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (ELAB) Movement in Hong Kong. Methods: Two hundred and twenty undergraduate students were recruited. They were asked to complete the questionnaire in measuring the parent-child political affiliation, social movement involvement, psychological distress, mindfulness, forgiveness, open-mindedness, perceived parental autonomy support, active listening from parent, perceived parental trust, and parent support for basic psychological needs. Results: Hierarchical Multiple Regression analysis was conducted to examine the main effects and interactions effect of social movement involvement, personal resources, family resources on psychological distress. The results showed that mindfulness, forgiveness, open-mindedness, perceived parental autonomy support from mother, perceived parental trust, and parent support for basic psychological needs were significantly related to lower level of distress. In addition, personal resources have stronger impact than family resources for buffering the psychological distress during social movement. Conclusion: The results demonstrated the needs of promoting specific personal and family resources for the population in reducing the social movement distress. All rights reserved.