Stressors and resilience are associated with well-being in young adult college students

Abstract

Objective: The purposes were to describe stressors and resilience behaviors of college students and examine the relationships among stressors, resilience, and well-being. Hypothesis: Resilience will modify the relationship between stressors and well-being. Participants: The sample included 1,010 college students, ages 18–26, from an urban Midwestern university. Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from an anonymous survey was conducted using multiple regression and simple slopes analysis. Results: Resilience did not modify the relationship between stressors and well-being. Stressors (β = −.44, p < .0001) and resilience (β = .33, p < .0001) accounted for 42% of the variance in well-being (adjusted R² = .42, F_2,999 = 365.98, p < .0001). The most frequently endorsed stressors were sleep problems, anxiety, and relationships. Conclusions: Stressors and resilience warrant special attention in the allocation of resources and development of programs to improve student well-being.

Keywords:

• College students
• resilience
• stressors
• well-being

Acknowledgment

The authors express their appreciation to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Louisville.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for this research or authorship of this article.