RESILIENCE AS A MEDIATOR OF STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING, EXISTENTIAL REGRET, AND PHYSICAL HEALTH IN OLDER ADULTS

摘要

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF SUCCESSFUL AGING G. Reker, Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada Resilience has been identified as an important personal resource in confronting the challenges brought on by life's changing circumstances.Resilience is defined as an individual's level of ability to cope, adapt, and grow when faced with adversity.lt is comprised of four dimensions:psychological (disposition), behavioral (coping), attitudinal (motivation), and physical.One hundred and forty-six older adults (54+ years) completed measures of stressful life events, resilience, life satisfaction, depression, existential regret, and physical healtii.Using the latent construct approach and structural equation modeling, it was found that resilience, either partially or fully, mediated the relationship between stress and subjective well-being, existential regret, and physical health.Model fit in all instances was good with CFIs exceeding the cut-off point of .90.A causal interpretation from stressful life events to resilience to well-being outcomes was strengthened by the finding that reverse causal mediation effects were not significant for any of the outcome measures.The data also identified relative freedom from "inner struggle" with missed opportunities from the past, a component measure of existential regret reflecting intrusive thoughts, as an important dimension of resilience.Thus, resilience, broadly conceptualized functions as an important resource for older adults as they cope with the many challenges that confront them on a daily basis.The results support previous findings with the construct of resilience and underscore the need to include existential variables in the conceptualization and assessment of resilience.