Thriving in the shadow of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake: Two studies on resilience in adolescents

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to explore the relationship between resilience and psychological adjustment in Chinese adolescents who experienced the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Study 1 compared the scores and factor structures on the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents for 1436 adolescents, who were divided into a high-adversity group and a low-adversity group. The results showed that resilience following exposure to an earthquake included cognitive and emotive components. In Study 2, 311 Chinese adolescents who resided in the most severely affected areas were surveyed at 15 months (T1) and 20 months (T2) following the earthquake. The results revealed that resilience mediated the relationship between positive future expectations at T1 and adjustment at T2.