2. Blessing Marandure, DeMontfort University
Resilience and depression in adolescents: exploring the moderation effects of alcohol use
Blessing Marandure, DeMontfort University

3. Background
Resilience is defined as at the ability to produce adaptive outcomes in spite of adversity (Meschke & Patterson, 2003).
Studying the process of resilience involves identifying interactions between risk and protective factors (Luthar, Ciccheti & Becker, 2000)
There are key/global factors that have been identified as being protective against a range of maladaptive outcomes include social support, self regulation etc (Masten, 2001)
Adolescence has been identified as a critical period of development, whereby the influence of risk and protective factors is intensified (Meschke &Patterson, 2003)
Adolescence- developmental transition to adulthood. Time of experiencing significant challenges etc.
Key global factors that are protective- resilience factors.

4. Protective Model of Resilience (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005)
Outcome
Risk/Adversity
Protective Factors
Protective model of resilience:- Protective factors thought to moderate the relationship between exposure to risk/adversity and subsequent outcomes.

5. Hypothesised Extension
Outcome
Risk/Adversity
Protective Factors
Further Exposure to Risk
In my study I proposed to extend the basic protective factor model of resilience, by taking account of further exposure to risk factors. E.g. we know that people who have gone through adversity are more likely to engage in risky behaviour (e.g. substance use, risky sexual behaviour etc).

6. Hypothesis Depression Risk/Adversity Protective Factors Alcohol Use
In this study, I particularly wanted to test this part of the model. To see if further risk exposure moderated the relationship between protective factors and maladaptive outcomes. Specifically, I chose to look at alcohol use as a potential candidate for this disruptive effect, as it is the most commonly used substance in adolescents. I also chose to look at symptoms of depression as an outcome, due to the well established link with alcohol use.

7. Method
261 adolescents aged between years (mean age yrs, SD= 1.45) were recruited from 4 schools across the West Midlands
59.8% were female & 82.4% identified ethnicity as UK White
Participants completed the following measures:
Resilience Scale for Adolescents (Hjemdal & Friborg, 2006)
21 item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995)
Alcohol use (Type and quantity)
Alcohol use measure- asked them to identify the type and quantity of alcohol they normally consume in one sitting. Used to approximate units consumed per sitting

8. Results: Levels of Alcohol Use
138 (52.9%) participants identified as alcohol users
Mean units per sitting= 9.64 (sd 7.12)
69% of sample consumed alcohol once a week or more

9. Results: Resilience, Alcohol & Depression
Significant moderate & weak negative relationships were identified between depression and resilience factors:
personal competence (r=-.51, p<.001)
social competence (r=-.35, p<.001)
family cohesion (r=-35, p<.001)
structured style (r=-.26, p<.001)
social resources (r=-.24, p<.001)
total resilience (r=-.47, p<.001)
Significant weak positive relationship between alcohol units consumed per sitting and depression (r= .15, p=.03)
Spearman’s correlations

10. Results: Moderation effects of Alcohol
Hierarchical Regression
Step 1: Resilience factors and alcohol as predictors of depression
Step 2: Interaction terms
Step 1 model was significant (F (6,187)= 11.59, p<.001), and accounted for 24.8% of the variance in depression scores
F Change
ΔR2 β
Step 1
11.59
.27
Alcohol units
.125
Personal competence
-.464**
Social competence
-.072
Structured Style
-.042
Social resources
.183
Family cohesion
-.129
Note.**p<.001

11. Results: Moderation effects of Alcohol
In step 2, the model remained significant (F (11, 182), = 6.55, p<.001)
 Step 2
F Change
ΔR2 β
.63
.01
Alcohol units
.159
Personal competence
-.490*
Alc*PersComp
-.075
Alc*SocComp
-.044
Alc*StrucStyle
.131
Alc*SocRes
-.051
Alc*FamCoh
-.034
Variance accounted for

12. Discussion
The link identified between alcohol use and depression is comparable to that found in the literature (e.g. Poulin et al., 2005)
However, weak relationships in this study
Previous evidence indicates bi-directional causality (Boden & Fergusson, 2011)
The negative link between resilience factors and depression has been previously supported (e.g. Hjemdal et al., 2007)
Weak relationships- hence no predictive utility

13. Discussion
Lack of moderation effects could indicate that adolescent alcohol use does not disrupt protective effect of resilience factors
It may also be that it is problematic levels of use that are disruptive
Personal competence emerged as a key predictive factor for depression
Set of self- management skills helping with actively coping with challenges
Makes it attractive candidate for resilience-based interventions
Further investigation required into problematic levels of alcohol use
Personal competence:- previously described as a set of cognitive and behavioural self-management skills (Griffin et.al, 2002) that include self- control, self-regulation, self-reinforcement, and problem solving

14. Conclusion
Alcohol use at normative developmental levels does not appear to disrupt the resilience process.

15. Thank you. Any Questions?