DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENT RESILIENCY MODEL IN MALAYSIA: ANALYSIS OF PROTECTIVE FACTORS IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY IN SCHOOL

Abstract

Resilience is a dynamic process that involves a state where individuals have the ability to bounce back from setbacks, successfully adapt to stressors and maintaining psychological well-being in the face of adversity. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess the research model using SmartPLS 4. This study was conducted on 570 teenagers in Malaysia. Among other factors measured in this study are relationship with school, parental involvement, self-efficacy, religiosity and spirituality. Among the instruments used in this study are Spiritual Well-being, Religiosity Scale, Resiliency Belief Scale, Coppell's Self-Efficacy Scale, Parental Involvement Questionnaire and School Attachment Questionnaire. The items in this instrument are hypothesized as a priori and have non-zero loading for all dimensions in the model. The analysis of the items shows that the measurement model for all instruments is a well-fitting, multidimensional and reflective model. Data is also free of multicollinearity with  good internal validity, convergent and discriminant validity. The results also demonstrate that school attachment, religiosity, parental involvement, self-efficacy altogether positively affected teenagers’ resiliency (β = 0.182, β = 0.133, β = 0.218, 0.225, p<0.01) respectively, except spirituality. The model explained 48 percent of the variance in resilience (R²=. 480) with AVE 0.82 and composite reliability 0.97. Analysis of the items resulted in a well-fitting model (SRMR<0.08, p<0.01). Therefore, resiliency of young generation is significant to bring a good quality of life, important outcome of health related interventions and as protective factors against some of the challenges that may arise so that they have ability for self-regulation in emotions and thrive in the face of adversity.