Components of schizophrenia liability are not uniformly associated with stress sensitivity, resilience, and coping

Stress sensitization is a candidate final common pathway for the development of schizophrenia. In other psychopathologies, resilience attenuates the stressor-outcome relationships. Therefore, we sought to determine whether resilience moderates the association between stress sensitivity and schizophrenia liability. Undergraduates (n = 230) self-reported cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganisation attributes of schizophrenia liability as well as ratings of sensitivity to stress, resilience, and dispositional coping behaviour. Bivariate analyses showed components of schizophrenia liability were significantly predicted by greater stress sensitivity, poor resilience and adaptive coping, and greater maladaptive coping behaviour. However, regression modelling suggested that cognitive-perceptual attributes were uniquely predicted by stress sensitivity in models that include resilience. In contrast, interpersonal attributes had a weaker relationship with stress sensitivity and were strongly predicted by poor resilience. In general, resilience did not moderate the relationship of stress sensitivity with schizophrenia liability. Unexpectedly, some specific attributes of resilience (personal strength, structured style) potentiated the relationship of stress sensitivity with schizophrenia liability. We conclude that the relationships of stress sensitivity, resilience, and coping with attributes of schizophrenia liability are not uniform and speculate that the pattern of associations may reflect the different influences of chronic stress exposures and neurocognitive functioning.