Predictors of resilience among adolescent disaster survivors: A path analysis.

Resilience is known to be an important concept in recovering from long-term impacts following a disaster in adolescent populations, but its risk and protective factors have not been adequately explored. We found that PTSD symptoms influenced how adolescent disaster survivors developed defensive coping, social support had an indirect effect on resilience through courageous coping and defensive coping acted as a mediator between PTSD symptoms and courageous coping. These findings can help mental health professionals (i.e., community mental health nurses) promote intervention strategies to enhance resilience through improving coping skills in adolescent populations exposed to a disaster.