Integrating self-report and performance-based assessment of adaptability in a university context

To comply or not comply? A latent profile analysis of behaviours and attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic

How and why do people comply with protective behaviours during COVID-19? The emerging literature employs a variable-centered approach, typically using a narrow selection of constructs within a study. This study is the first to adopt a person-centred approach to identify complex patterns of compliance, and holistically examine underlying psychological differences, integrating multiple psychology paradigms and epidemiology. 1575 participants from Australia, US, UK, and Canada indicated their behaviours, attitudes, personality, cognitive/decision-making ability, resilience, adaptability, coping, political and cultural factors, and information consumption during the pandemic's first wave. Using Latent Profile Analysis, two broad groups were identified. The compliant group (90%) reported greater worries, and perceived protective measures as effective, whilst the non-compliant group (about 10%) perceived them as problematic. The non-compliant group were lower on agreeableness and cultural tightness-looseness, but more extraverted, and reactant. They utilised more maladaptive coping strategies, checked/trusted the news less, and used official sources less. Females showed greater compliance than males. By promoting greater appreciation of the complexity of behaviour during COVID-19, this research provides a critical platform to inform future studies, public health policy, and targeted behaviour change interventions during pandemics. The results also challenge age-related stereotypes and assumptions.

Profiles of Maladjustment and Interpersonal Risk Factors in Adolescents

The individual's adaptation problems can lead to risky behaviors such as drug use. This study aimed to analyze the existence of different adaptation profiles (personal, school, and social) in adolescents. Thus, the study aimed to analyze the existence of significant differences in interpersonal risk factors depending on the degree of adaptation. The study participants were 1,201 students of Compulsory Secondary Education (M = 14.43, SD = 1.43), and 50.6% were girls. The TAMAI Test (multifactorial adaptation self-evaluation test) and the FRIDA questionnaire (Interpersonal Risk Factors for Drug Use in Adolescence) were used. A latent class analysis (LCA) revealed three different types of adaptation: maladjusted group, at-risk group, and adjusted group. The results showed the existence of significant differences between the different adaptation profiles based on interpersonal risk factors. The data obtained will help school and mental health plans to prevent misbehaving or risky behaviors.

An integrative process model of resilience in an academic context: Resilience resources, coping strategies, and positive adaptation

Tertiary study presents students with a number of pressures and challenges. Thus, mental resilience plays a key role in students’ well-being and performance. Resilience research has moved away from conceptualising resilience as a trait and towards studying resilience as a process by which resources protect against the negative impact of stressors to produce positive outcomes. However, there is a lack of research in the academic domain examining the mechanisms underlying this process. This study addressed this gap by examining a range of personal resilience resources and their interaction with coping responses to produce positive adaptation outcomes, in a sample of 306 undergraduate students. Firstly, individual differences in resilience were examined, whereby factor analysis resulted in self-report measures of resilience-related attributes converging onto an overarching factor. The extracted factor was then validated against markers of positive adaptation (mental well-being, university adjustment, and somatic health symptoms), and the mediating roles of coping strategies were investigated through structural equation modelling. The resilience resources factor directly predicted mental well-being and adjustment; and indirectly predicted adjustment and somatic health symptoms through support-seeking and avoidant coping, respectively. These findings have theoretical implications for how resilience is conceptualised, as well as practical implications for improving student well-being and adjustment through promoting social support and reducing disengaged and avoidant coping strategies.