| Abstract: | Personality hardiness has emerged in research as an important buffer in the stress-illness relationship. Little, however is known about the antecedents in early experience. Based on conceptualizations in existential psychology and research on the resilient child, the present study tested hypotheses implicating stresses, compensatory family standards and self-perception, and parental stimulation as formative influences for hardiness in adulthood. Responses to life review interview questions given by managers previously selected to be low or high in hardiness were coded blind for the early experience variables hypothesized. The study demonstrated adequate interscorer agreement on early experience coding. Correlation and regression analyses demonstrated the expected prevalence of compensatory family standards and self-perceptions in high- versus low hardiness participants but failed to show any differences regarding stresses and parental stimulations. Discussion of these results centers on the developmental importance of compensatory effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
