Building Resilience Takes More Than Optimism: How Stress and Adversity Shape Positive Psychological Resources

Optimism is theorized to build resilience through perceived mastery. Among 486 university students, mastery indirectly influenced the optimism-resilience association. This pathway was buffered by high experiences of childhood adversity. When perceived stress was considered, the indirect pathway was no longer evident, highlighting distinct developmental versus situational constraints on resilience-related processes.