The role of positivity as predictor of ego-resiliency from adolescence to young adulthood

The present longitudinal study examined the role of positivity in predicting ego-resiliency over a 10-year period. Participants were 373 middle adolescents (46.9% males) assessed during the transition into young adulthood. The mean age of participants was 16.9 years at the beginning of the study and 25.9 years at the end. An autoregressive cross-lagged model was used to investigate the prediction of positivity from ego-resiliency. At each time point, positivity predicted later ego-resiliency above and beyond its high stability. Ego-resiliency, instead, did not predict positivity. These results provide corroboration from a longitudinal perspective of previous findings highlighting the potential benefits of positive emotion for helping people to cope successfully with stressful events during their lives. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.