Resilience, Health and Stress: Using an Ecological System Model

This thesis reports on five studies which examine whether an ecological system model of resilience, as includes adaptive, engineering and ecological aspects, can be examined within the context of health, stress and emotional regulation. Despite the well-documented application of other models of resilience in health and stress contexts, little is known about the ecological system model of resilience. This thesis therefore provides a novel investigation of the ecological system model of resilience in various settings. The findings of Study 1 indicate that aspects of the ecological system model of resilience are significantly associated with aspects of health-related quality of life and health-specific self-efficacy. Study 2 fails to offer evidence as to the relationship between resilience and physiological responses given to emotional picture stimuli by using skin conductance responses measurements. Study 3 reveals that the aspects of trait resilience are positively related with both positive and negative sound and video stimuli, with the effect size varying from small to large when using skin conductance responses measurements. Study 4 suggests that aspects of resilience are positively related with heart rate variability during an exposure to affective videos. Finally, Study 5 shows that engineering resilience is positively related with skin conductance responses and negatively related with anxiety. Furthermore, Study 5 indicates that engineering resilience uniquely predicts anxiety after controlling for baseline scores. Overall, these studies have improved our understanding held as to the ecological system model of resilience in relation to health and emotional regulation and With regard to the capacity of ecological model of resilience (EEA) for predicting quality of life (health-related) for people in their positive functioning as well as the manner in which physiological alterations in cardiovascular and electro-dermal activity, this model of resilience and provides empirical evidence about the forecasting role of resilience in general. These findings highlight key areas for development in both future studies and in relation to the resilience within the health and emotional regulation system.