Protective factors that influence resilience among college students

This thesis explores the level of resiliency of Vancouver Island University (VIU) students and examines the effects of protective factors on students’ resiliency. The study aims to provide college counsellors a more effective approach in designing crisis intervention and prevention programs that help promote students’ mental and emotional health on VIU campuses. The five main protective factors investigated in the study are: (1) Personal Competence, 2) Social Competence, (3) Family Cohesion, (4) Social Support, and (5) Personal Structure. The primary goal of this study was to thoroughly explore the most common protective factors experienced by students of all age groups. A sample of VIU students (N=101) participated in the research. Participants’ responses to the survey items were captured using a 15-item, five-point Likert attitude rating scale. The 15-item scale used in the present study was adapted from the 37-item Resilience Scale for Adult (RSA) that was originally designed to measure the full construct of resiliency (Frigborg et al., 2003). This scale helps measure students’ resilience by examining how much the five sub-constructs of resilience mentioned above are present in their lives. The self-reported data was gathered anonymously via an online survey tool called Survey Monkey. The data was then imported to the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) to analyze. Five statistical analyses (Descriptive Statistic, Paired-Sample T-test, Cronbach’s alpha, One-way ANOVA, and Box plots) were carried out to analyze and illustrate the data. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the resilience literature and offer more effective intervention and counselling programs for students on VIU campuses.