The Association Between Perceived Resiliency and Change in Income from Childhood to Early Adulthood

Abstract

Background: It is well known that majority of children growing up in low income families will experience some type of adversity and as a result of their environment many will not adapt well when entering adulthood. Yet, there is a small percentage of children that overcome their childhood hardships, adapt well, and develop into successful adults. That small percentage of children are assumed to have some form of childhood resilience which might account for their subsequent success as adults. Specifically, perceived resilience may account for growth and success in adapting to the challenges and expectations of adulthood. Objective: To determine if changing from low income as a child to high income as an adult correlates with a higher perceived resilience. Methods: A correlation study using between subject design was conducted. The Socioeconomic Status (SES) Questionnaire and Dispositional Resiliency Scale-15 (DRS-15) Questionnaire were distributed to 48 healthy participants. The resulting data were analyzed using Pearson r correlation in SPSS 24.

Results: As a whole, the sample did not show significant association between the total DRS-15 scores and change in income from childhood to early adulthood (r = .123, p = .404). A subgroup having shown an increase in income (n=7) had a mean total DRS-15 score of 22.86 (SD = 3.36) and four individuals of this subgroup that only came from low-income families had a mean total DRS-15 score of 25.5 (SD = 1.29). According to the total DRS-15 scoring scale, both group's mean total DRS-15 scores can be found in the “low” range of the total Hardiness score. However, the subgroup with increased income (n=7) had a significant correlation with total DRS-15 scores and change in income from childhood to early adulthood, suggesting that as these individual’s total DRS-15 scores increased they were more likely to make more money (r= .727, p = .032). For individuals with declining income from childhood to early adulthood (n=26) there was no significant correlation (r = .089, p = .666). After controlling for childhood income as a possible confounding variable, we still found no significant correlation between individuals with decreased income after leaving home and total DRS-15 scores indicating childhood income had no effect on this association (r = .013, p = .949). On the other hand, after removing childhood income from the correlational study between individuals with increased income after leaving home and total DRS-15 scores there was no longer a significance, suggesting that childhood household income significantly influenced the correlation between income change and total DRS 15 scores (r = -.278, p = .594). Conclusion: These results suggest that coming from low-income families and obtaining higher income as early adults doesn’t correlate with perceived resilience. Yet, for a subset of low-income individuals show a positive correlation between changed income and their total DRS-15 scores. Further studies are recommended to see if the results found in this study are replicable but should take into account the limitations as mentioned in the study or take into account other measurements.