Gender-specific social support and resilience in nontraditional female college students

Abstract

Female college students report higher rates of stress than their male peers. Ineffective stress management contributes to a variety of concerning health outcomes. A number of factors have been shown to promote resilience to stress, such as experiencing positive social support. Few studies have examined if gender-specific social support impacts resilience. The present study investigates if gender-specific social support uniquely contributes to resilience among nontraditional college female students. Participants (N = 57) aged 21 to 54 completed an online survey assessing resilience and perceived social support from females and males. Participants with higher levels of perceived female social support reported higher levels of resilience than those with lower levels of perceived female social support. Perceived male social support was not significantly related to resilience when examined in conjunction with perceived female social support. These findings suggest that perceived female social support may uniquely contribute to resilience in nontraditional female students.

Keywords:

• College students
• gender
• nontraditional students
• resilience
• social support

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of St. Catherine University.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.