Resilience and basic psychological needs among Palestinian school students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between Basic Psychological Needs including Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness (Deci and Ryan, 2000) and factors predicting resilience (American Psychological, 2010) among Palestinian school students who are living under adversity in the West Bank. The participants were 537 students 13 and 14 years old (45% male and 55% female) representing both urban and rural areas of the northern West Bank. All participants completed the CYRM-28 Psychological Resilience Questionnaire (Liebenberg et al., 2012) and The Basic Psychological Needs Scale-General Version (Ilardi et al., 1993). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis results showed that the BPN model adequately explained variable variance (MOD FIT/CFI = 0.998) and that satisfying Basic Psychological Needs had positive and significant on resilience factors of Caregiving (Physical and Psychological Caregiving), Individual (Personal Skills, Peer Support, and Social Skills), and Context (Spiritual, Education and Cultural Context). The role of (BPN) was significant ( β = 0.297, p < 0.001), ( β = 0.409, p < 0.001), and (β = 0.241, p < 0.001) respectively Caregiving, Individual, and Context, factors were high (0.711, 0.706, and 0.80) respectively, which in turn indicated that (BPN) plays strong role in explaining the variance of Caregiving, Individual, and Context factors. Based on these findings, (SDT) can predict Resilience factors in case of satisfying (BPN). Findings of the study support that educational and family practices focusing on satisfying psychological needs are related to childhood resilience in the face of adversity.