Henry,
Iris Warren (10/08) Ego-resiliency’s role in reducing the impact of violence
exposure on world assumptions (Philip Wong, Ph.D.; Barry Ritzler, Ph.D.; Joan
Duncan, Ph.D.)
The present study examined whether
ego-resiliency moderated the impact of violence exposure on psychological
distress and world assumptions in a sample of 152 undergraduate students.
Results were consistent with past findings that ego-resiliency correlated with
and was a significant predictor of psychological distress. Individuals with
higher levels of ego-resiliency tended to have lower symptoms ratings than
individuals with lower levels of ego-resiliency. In addition, as expected, as
violence exposure increased so did psychological distress. Further, benevolence
of the world and self-worth significantly correlated with psychological health.
While these findings have been reported in the trauma literature, there is a
significant gap in the literature regarding how the relationship between
ego-resiliency and violence exposure impacts the manner in which individuals
function in and view the world. This study empirically examined the role of
ego-resiliency as a protective personality characteristic and found a clear
trend suggesting ego-resiliency reduces the negative impact of violence
exposure on an individual's mental health. This study also examined the high
violence exposure group to investigate the ego-resiliency process and found
that individuals with high ego-resiliency who experience significant cumulative
violence tend to possess more moderate world assumptions, while individuals low
in ego-resiliency who experience similar violence tend to have either overly
positive or overly negative word assumptions.
