Stress resilience: a predictor of social independence

Although early life adversity (ELA) and life stress (CLS) are robust predictors of mental and physical health conditions in later life, many experience significant stressors without developing psychological or functional impairment. Stress resilience is the process of successfully adapting to stressors, or the maintenance or quick recovery of mental health during and following adversity. This study sought to identify factors associated with greater resiliency, focusing on three mechanisms implicated in the development of mood and anxiety disorders: reward, threat, and executive functioning.

To address these gaps, the current study tested the relationship between resilience to ELA and CLS and reward, threat, and executive functioning in a sample of 190 young adults aged 18-19. Reward, threat, and executive functioning were tested using an extensive battery of behavioral measures.

We found that higher stress resilience was significantly associated with lower social reward sensitivity, but was not associated with our measures of threat and executive functioning.

The findings may indicate that high stress resilience relates to lower dependency upon social feedback.