Personal and Contextual components of Resilience mediate Risky Family Environment's effect on Psychotic-Like Experiences.

Abstract

Background: Psychotic-like experiences index an increased risk for subsequent psychotic disorders. A risky family environment is a well-established risk factor for psychotic-like experiences, however different contextual and personal factors may differentially mediate their effect on psychotic-like experiences, including different aspects of resilience. Objective: In this study we propose a two-dimension model of resilience. Our aim is to address separately the mediational role of personal and contextual resilience factors between a risky family environment and PLE in a community sample. Methods and Materials: Five hundred University students completed an on-line questionnaire including the Resilience Scale for Adults, the 16-item version of the Prodromal Questionnaire and the Risky Family Questionnaire. Mediation was assessed using Structural Equation Modelling with bootstrapping estimation of indirect effect. Results: Direct effect of Personal and Contextual resilience on Psychotic-like experiences were respectively -0.69 [- 0.97, -0.41] (p<0.001) and -0.19 [-0.58, 0.20] (ns); indirect effects through personal resilience was 0.03[ 0.01, 0.04] (p<0.001). Personal resilience mediated 27.4% of the total effect of risky family environment on psychotic-like experiences. Discussion: Personal resilience, but not contextual resilience, mediated the effect of a risky family environment on Psychotic-like experiences. Poor personal resilience may represent an individual risk factor that transmits the effect of risky family environment on psychotic-like experiences, and could represent a central aspect of individualised prevention and treatment strategies.