Personal and contextual components of resilience mediate risky family environment's effect on psychotic-like experiences

Background: Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) index an increased risk for subsequent psychotic disorders. A risky family environment is a well-established risk factor for PLEs; however, different contextual and personal resiliency factors may differentially mediate its effect on PLEs.

Objective: In this study, we propose a two-dimensional model of resilience. Our aim is to address separately the mediational role of personal and contextual resiliency factors between a risky family environment and PLEs in a community sample.

Methods and materials: Five-hundred University students completed an on-line questionnaire, including the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), the 16-item version of the Prodromal Questionnaire (iPQ-16) and the Risky Family Questionnaire (RFQ). Mediation was assessed using Structural Equation Modelling with bootstrapping estimation of indirect effect.

Results: The direct effects of personal and contextual resilience on PLEs were respectively -0.69 [-0.97, -0.41] (P < .001) and - 0.19 [-0.58, 0.20] (ns); the indirect effect through personal resilience was 0.03[0.01, 0.04] (P < .001). Personal resilience mediated 27.4% of the total effect of risky family environment on PLEs.

Discussion: Personal resilience, as opposite to contextual resilience, mediates the effect of a risky family environment on PLEs. Low personal resilience may represent an individual risk factor that transmits the effect of risky family environment on PLEs and could represent a central aspect of individualized prevention and treatment strategies.