Resilience, distress, wellbeing, nonverbal memory, and cognitive flexibility: A longitudinal study of adaptation to college stressors

Resilience is an important construct in individual differences research that has shown correlations with decreased psychological distress, improved wellbeing, and better functioning under stressful circumstances. However, it has been defined both as a trait variable and as a longitudinal process outcome. Efforts to understand this construct would benefit from research bringing together these two conceptualizations. Models of resilient functioning would also benefit from evidence showing how resilience interacts with perceived stress. It is unclear whether resilience directly reduces perceived stress, thus preventing that variable from negatively impacting outcomes, or whether resilience acts as a coping resource marshalled in spite of high perceived stress. There are also debates over the components of trait resilience, with a recent emphasis on the role of cognitive flexibility. The present study hypothesized that trait resilience reduces psychological symptom distress over time independent of the effect of perceived stress, and that this reduction in psychological distress facilitates better cognitive functioning. Participants were 120 ethnically diverse undergraduate students enrolled in a cohort program. Analyses of main hypotheses were conducted using multiple linear regression. A model including trait resilience with perceived stress as a covariate accounted for a significant portion of the variance in psychological symptom distress change over time; however, after controlling for perceived stress, the effect of trait resilience was nonsignificant on one measure, and significantly correlated with increased distress over time on another measure. A piloted, performance-based measure of cognitive flexibility did not demonstrate convergent validity with an established measure of cognitive flexibility. The significance of these findings for resilience research is discussed.