Psychological Resources, Stress, and Well-Being in Adolescence: An Integrative Structural Model

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Adolescent Health
• Mental Well-being

Background:

• Adolescence is a critical period for emotional and behavioral development, with lasting impacts on well-being.
• Psychological resources (self-efficacy, mindfulness, reflective functioning) individually benefit adjustment.
• The combined influence of these resources on perceived stress, difficulties, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adolescents remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test an integrative structural model of psychological resources, stress, emotional-behavioral difficulties, and HRQoL in early and mid-adolescence.
• To examine the interplay between self-efficacy, mindfulness, reflective functioning, perceived stress, emotional-behavioral difficulties, and HRQoL.
• To assess the invariance of these pathways across gender and age groups.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional online survey of 395 adolescents (aged 10-16 years).
• Utilized self-report measures for HRQoL (KIDSCREEN-10), emotional-behavioral difficulties (SDQ), perceived stress (PSS), self-efficacy (GSE), mindfulness (CAMM), and reflective functioning (RFQY-5).
• Employed structural path modeling and multi-group analyses to investigate variable interrelationships and cross-group invariance.

Main Results:

• Mindfulness, self-efficacy, and reflective functioning indirectly improved HRQoL by reducing perceived stress and emotional-behavioral difficulties.
• Perceived stress strongly correlated with difficulties, and both predicted lower HRQoL.
• The established pathways were consistent across age and broadly comparable across gender.

Conclusions:

• Psychological resources, stress, and emotional-behavioral difficulties are interconnected factors influencing adolescent well-being.
• Findings suggest the developmental relevance and potential for early intervention in strengthening socio-emotional competences.
• Limitations include cross-sectional design, convenience sampling, self-report reliance, and single-country data, restricting generalizability and causal inference.