A Narrative Analysis of Resilience and Coping in Persons Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis by Mildred C. Alford Ph.D., Ed., Berne International Graduate University, 1998 M.S. Ed., Texas A & M University, Commerce, 1989 B.S., Psychology, University of Houston, 1976 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Psychology Walden University June 2017

The primary goal of this study was to explore whether individual resiliency factors measured by the Resilience Scale (RS) influence academic success for Bermudian foster care adolescents, a population previously unstudied in the literature. Academic vulnerability is a concern for foster care adolescents, and more empirical studies need to be conducted to increase understanding of the variables that affect academic success for this population. Resiliency is a conceptual framework based on a positive developmental focus. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the relationship between resilience and academic success among 51 Bermudian foster care adolescents who attended Bermuda public schools. Achievement scores and grade point average (GPA) were used to ascertain participants' levels of academic success. This study employed a nonexperimental correlational design using a multiple regression to analyze the relationships. Results revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between resiliency and reading achievement but no relationship between resiliency and GPA and resiliency and math achievement. The finding of the positive relationship between resiliency and reading could influence policymakers to reexamine current education policies to stress the importance of ensuring that all at-risk adolescents identified in Bermuda Public Schools acquire adequate reading skills.

Research exploring the relationship between social supports and resilience among hospital-based nurses and teachers has offered little to illuminate how school nurses identify and access social support and the impact it may have on their ability to manage ongoing daily stressors or develop resilience. The social networks and social support model suggest that access to social support may underscore the development of effective coping. This study explored the relationship between social supports as measured by a self-report questionnaire, and resilience as measured by the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). It was hypothesized that a positive correlation would exist between use of personal, professional, and community social support and school nurse resilience scores. Additional hypotheses were that resilience would be positively correlated with longevity, perception of funding, and professional school nurse association activity. A convenience sample of 145 certified school nurses employed in one northeastern state's public schools completed an online survey that included a behavioral questionnaire and the CD-RISC. t tests and correlations were employed to examine the relationship between the variables. Both collaboration with multidisciplinary team members within the school setting and identification of personal and professional social support were significantly correlated with school nurse resilience. Results may influence positive social change for the individual school nurse via an improved ability to cope with workplace stressors. The bidirectional nature of resilience suggests interaction with a resilient nurse may influence the broader school community with an impact on cost, attendance, and learning.

Friendships are an important context of children's development, yet there is much still to be learned about these formative relationships. Friendship stability is one understudied feature of children's friendships. The aim of the present study was to investigate both predictors and outcomes associated with friendship stability to further elucidate the role that friendships play in shaping children's development. Potential predictors examined included age, gender, gender match, race, residence in a rural or urban community, number of moves in the last year, child externalizing behavior, friendship quality, and deficient parenting. Similarity between friends in terms of overt and relational aggression was also examined as a potential predictor of stability, and age was tested as a potential moderator of these relations. Additionally, a double mediational model was explored wherein child behavior was tested as a mediator of the link between deficient parenting and friendship quality and friendship quality was tested as mediator of the link between child behavior and friendship stability. Finally, in order to better understand the impact of stable friendships on children's adjustment, the present study tested friendship stability as a predictor of time 2 child externalizing behavior after controlling for time 1 externalizing behavior. Participants were 176 children and primary caretakers enrolled in a 3-year longitudinal study examining the social development of children living in circumstances of social disadvantage. A multisource, multimethod approach was used to assess deficient parenting and children's externalizing behavior. Friendship stability was assessed over two waves approximately 12 months apart. Participating children provided data on their friendships, friendship quality, and friends' aggressive behavior. Children were invited to report on friendships occurring in any setting and friendship stability was examined both in children's networks of 1-3 best friends and in children's relationships with one very best friend. Proposed models were tested using structural equation modeling. The link between child externalizing behavior and friendship stability was supported, as was the link between deficient parenting and child externalizing behavior. Deficient parenting and friendship quality did not predict friendship stability. Thus, the role of child externalizing behavior as a mediator of the relation between deficient parenting and friendship stability was not supported by the present study, nor was the role of friendship quality as a mediator of the relation between child externalizing behavior and friendship stability. Age significantly predicted friendship stability with one very best friend and residence in a rural or urban community significantly predicted friendship stability within children's networks of 1-3 best friends. Friendship stability did not predict time 2 externalizing behavior. These results highlight the influence of child behavior, age, and contextual factors on friendship stability.

Transportation networks, as important lifelines linking communities and goods, are indispensable for the smooth functioning of society. These networks are, however, fragile and vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters, which can disrupt their vital functionality. The role of the transportation sector becomes more crucial during disasters due to its role in pre-disaster evacuation as well as post-disaster recovery. The ability of transportation systems to retain performance during and after disasters undergoing little to no loss and their ability to return to the normal state of operation quickly after disasters defines their resilience. Authorities need to understand the degree of resilience within the transportation system under their jurisdiction and plan for improvements. In this research, attempts have been made to deal with resilience in quantitative ways to provide defensible data to decision makers to support investment strategies. Total loss in the network performance can be quantified by dealing with the variation of network performance over time after disasters and the network resilience can be measured by the ability to minimize this loss. It has been shown that robust networks retain better performance after disruptions and recovery works, which follow optimized recovery paths, in spite of constraints of resources and time, help to minimize the total losses and enhance the network resilience. The objective of this research is to create a conceptual framework to quantify resilience and discuss quantitatively the properties determining resilience of transportation networks. The concepts presented are applied to a test network to illustrate the mathematical procedures. Such methods can help decision makers analyze relative improvements in resiliency as a consequence of proposed project alternatives and help to perform benefit-cost analysis for such projects.

Despite significant progress in the acceptance and celebration of LGBTQ+ individuals, there is overwhelming evidence that sexual minorities still face disproportionate levels of health inequity compared to their heterosexual peers. Relative to their heterosexual peers, LGBTQ+ emerging adults may encounter unique challenges with discrimination, stigma, and limited social support as they navigate changes in their educational and occupational environments. Additionally, within the broader public health and LGBTQ+ mental health literature, little is known about the mental health service utilization of sexual minority emerging adults. To address these empirical gaps, a sample of 98 LGBTQ+ emerging adults completed self-report measures of heterosexist discrimination experiences, mental health symptoms, LGBTQ+ positive identity, LGBTQ+ community connectedness, and mental health service utilization. The present study found that LGBTQ+ positive identity and LGBTQ+ community connectedness did not attenuate the significant positive relationship between discrimination and negative mental health outcomes. The present study also found that LGBTQ+ positive identity predicted greater likelihood of mental health service utilization, whereas LGBTQ+ community connectedness did not. Finally, exploratory qualitative analyses yielded deeper understanding of relationships between LGBTQ+ positive identity, LGBTQ+ community connectedness, mental health service utilization, and resilience among sexual minority emerging adults. Implications and future directions for empirical research and clinical practice with LGBTQ+ emerging adults are discussed.

An examination was undertaken of the literature and restoration cases for 4 major Australian vegetation types (sclerophyll; rainforest; grassland; and wetland) to explore the proposition that ecological resilience may govern recovery after anthropogenic damage, and/or provide a fundamental guide and measure of success for ecological restoration. Also, primary data were collected from highly degraded sites (5 sclerophyll, 3 rainforest, and 4 grassy sites) to assess recovery after restoration treatment. These were supplemented with questionnaire data from practitioners working at a wider range of rainforest and sclerophyll sites, and reports from practitioners working on grassland and wetland sites. In all 4 vegetation types, species generally fell into two main groups : longer-lived 'resprouters' and shorter-lived 'obligate seeders'. But different resilience models were identified for the 4 vegetation types. The sclerophyll type exhibited higher in situ resilience but lower migratory resilience than the rainforest type, which was facilitated by flying frugivore dispersal to perch trees. Self-perpetuation was more tightly coupled with disturbance in the sclerophyll, grassland and wetland types than rainforest; and therefore 'designed disturbance' played a more obvious role in enhancing recovery within these types, than in rainforest. Results suggest that resilience (as both an ecosystem property and a theoretical concept) is fundamental to the practice of ecological restoration. Some prediction of resilience potential of particular degraded sites (and prediction of the degree and type of restoration subsidy needed) can be based on knowledge of : individual species' recovery mechanisms; resilience models for individual vegetation-types; and the site's colonisation potential and impact history / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis investigated the relative importance of six emotional intelligence (EI) abilities comprising the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (SUEIT) in the prediction of (1) psychological resilience to negative life events, (2) romantic relationship adjustment and communication behaviour, and (3) employability skills. In Study 1, the strength of relationship between negative life events and distress varied across three latent classes, reflecting vulnerable, average, and resilient profiles. Graduated EI scores, in terms of emotional self-awareness, ability to express, and self-manage emotions, predicted membership to each class. Across the 414 survey respondents, these three EI abilities appeared to augment psychological resilience in the aftermath of negative life events. In Study 2, all six EI abilities were found to be weakly associated with dyadic adjustment, and moderately associated with eight relationship enhancing communication behaviours. The eight behaviours were themselves moderately to very strongly associated with adjustment. Mediation analyses revealed that each EI ability influenced dyadic adjustment through the communication behaviours it best predicted. Across the 116 romantic partners surveyed, those better able to express and self-manage emotion communicated in the most relationship enhancing ways. In Study 3, four of the six EI abilities were found to be differentially important in the prediction of seven Adaptive Performance dimensions, five Conflict Management strategies, three forms of Organizational Commitment, and seven Achievement Motivations. The abilities to think clearly under pressure, identify others' emotions, self-manage emotions, and manage others' emotions made valuable contributions, while emotional self-awareness, and the ability to express emotion, did not. Across the 105 workers surveyed, those with these four EI abilities appeared to have decidedly stronger employability skills, skills that distinguish between more and less successful workers of similar education and vocational experience, across all job families. These findings are largely consistent with EI theory, and with the small body of research to have examined similar effects in similar domains. Importantly however, the current findings offer much more specific insights into the relative importance of each EI ability in each context, and thus, the means by which emotional intelligence contributes to a psychologically healthy, intimately connected, and vocationally valuable life.

Bullying is a phenomenon that has serious psychological consequences for victims, including low psychological wellbeing, poor social adjustment, psychological distress, and physical illness. Bullying has become a topic of increasing public concern and the focus of considerable research in Australia over the last decade. Parallel to this rise in interest in bullying research is a rise in research into resilience. Research has indicated that children facing distress will show a range of responses; some will regress, while others tolerate and even thrive in the face of trauma; it is this second group that are described as resilient. It was therefore postulated in this thesis that individuals exposed to bullying may not all succumb to the typical negative effects of being a victim of school bullying. While previous studies have noted the difference in reactions to bullying, this is the first study to investigate whether resilient victims can be identified, and their key psychosocial characteristics profiled. Based on this notion, it was predicted that victims of bullying could be taught a set of skills and attitudes that would build their resilience to the expected effects of bullying. The present research consisted of two studies. Study 1 had two phases. The first phase of Study 1 identified 'resilient victims' of school bullying by assessing participants on their levels of victimisation and their levels of wellbeing using a battery of questionnaires. Participants were assigned to one of four groups: resilient victims, non-resilient victims, healthy non-victims, or poor-health non-victims. From the original sample of 867 students, 111 were categorised into one of the four groups, and completed a second questionnaire package. The second phase examined the relationships between these resilience groups and eight psychosocial correlates of general resilience: individual protective factors, optimism, coping, social support, social skills, self-esteem, self-concept, and emotional intelligence. The results showed that there were significant discriminators between resilient and non-resilient victims, particularly on factors such as optimism, productive coping, self-concept and self-esteem, and so cial variables. The aims of the second study were to 1) develop a cognitive-behavioural group intervention program to teach social skills, perceived social support, self-esteem, optimism, and effective coping skills, to adolescent victims of school bullying; and 2) to investigate the effectiveness of the intervention. Ten year 7 and 8 students who reported negative consequences to high levels of bullying participated in the intervention program. Results indicated that the program had positive effects on the skills and attitudes that the program targeted. The program also appeared to have positive effects on the participants' levels of victimisation and general wellbeing.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.