Investigating self-esteem and stress management style's effect on psychological resilience among adult individuals: A comparative study in Iran and Turkey

Stress, along with ever-increasing globalization, has become a major source of threat, either at individual or collective level. This situation is also has increased enormously in countries such as Iran and Turkey. Self-esteem and psychological resilience are playing a crucial role against numerous stressors experienced by individuals over lifetime. This study aimed at investigating the effects of self-esteem and stress management styles on psychological resilience. The target population of this study was over 18 years old Turkish natives and Iranians living in Turkey who were able to speak and understand Turkish well. As a result, 268 Turkish and 233 Iranian individuals (501 in total) were recruited for the study. Self-esteem, stress management strategies, and psychological resilience were explored by Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale (RSS), Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980) and Ego-Resilience scale (ER89) which developed by Block and Kerman (Block & Kremen, 1996) through demographic factors among participants. The data obtained through was analyzed using SPSS 20 statistics program. To respond research questions and hypotheses the analysis included enter-method regression, t test and one-way ANOVA. Regression analysis showed self-esteem and stress-management styles predicted psychological resilience in both Iranian and Turkish individuals. Self-esteem was also found to be higher among Turkish individuals than among Iranians. Again, Iranian individuals who had no children, also different from Turkish individuals, had higher self-esteem rates than those with children. Regarding educational status, Turkish individuals showed no difference in stress management styles; however, Iranian individuals differed significantly only in helpless approaching stress management style. It is found that Iranian individuals without children were more using helpless approaching and social support seeking styles. Turkish individuals without children showed more confident approach toward themselves and more helpless approaching with higher needs of social support. In this study Iranian individuals free from mental disorder showed higher rates of helpless approaching regarding individuals with mental disorder; however, there were no difference among Turkish individuals in this regard. A significant difference is found between genders among Iranian individuals for self-esteem self-evaluation. However, Turkish Individuals (i.e., male and females) showed no significant difference for psychological resilience. Turkish single individuals regarding their self-esteem and openness to new experiences showed higher rates of psychological resilience. Iranian individuals regarding their social status were found only to be analogous to Turkish individuals in terms of openness to experience. Respecting Turkish individuals: bachelor and undergraduate students showed stronger beliefs of their personality strength and openness to experience than graduate and high school students. Iranian individuals free from mental problems did better in self-evaluation and Turkish individuals showed more openness to experience. The abovementioned differences which found among individuals from two different countries are discussed in detail from cultural and societal perspective.