ArticlePDF Available

Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Abstract: Psychological flexibility is an important psychological factor influencing various individual and relational outcomes. However, there is a scarcity of evidence about cross-culturally validated measures available. The aim of the present study was to assess the Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale, which is a new and recently developed measure of this construct and test its relationship with resilience and social support. The sample comprised 516 adults (52.3% males) with an age range of 18–60 years ( M = 27.08, SD = 8.53). Results showed that the measure had good construct validity with high internal consistency reliability. The findings also demonstrated that psychological flexibility was positively associated with resilience and social support. Additionally, social support partially mediated the relationship between resilience and psychological flexibility. These results suggest that the Psy-Flex Scale is a reliable and valid tool to measure psychological flexibility in the Turkish cultural context. Intervention programs focusing on social support can also be tailored to promote psychological flexibility by cultivating resilience
Content may be subject to copyright.
1
Copyright © 2023 by author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-
tion in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association
with resilience and social support
Murat Yıldırım1*, Izaddin Ahmad Aziz2,3
1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Ağrı 04100, Turkey
2 Special Education Department, College of Education, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Erbil 44002, Iraq
3 English Department, College of Education, Bayan University, Erbil 44002, Iraq
Abstract: Psychological exibility is an important psychological factor inuencing various individ-
ual and relational outcomes. However, there is a scarcity of evidence about cross-culturally validat-
ed measures available. The aim of the present study was to assess the Turkish validation of the Psy-
Flex Scale, which is a new and recently developed measure of this construct and test its relationship
with resilience and social support. The sample comprised 516 adults (52.3% males) with an age
range of 18–60 years (M = 27.08, SD = 8.53). Results showed that the measure had good construct
validity with high internal consistency reliability. The ndings also demonstrated that psychological
exibility was positively associated with resilience and social support. Additionally, social support
partially mediated the relationship between resilience and psychological flexibility. These results
suggest that the Psy-Flex Scale is a reliable and valid tool to measure psychological exibility in the
Turkish cultural context. Intervention programs focusing on social support can also be tailored to
promote psychological exibility by cultivating resilience.
Keywords: Psy-Flex Scale; resilience; social support; reliability; validity; Turkish adaptation
*Corresponding author: Murat Yıldırım, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Ağrı İbrahim
Çeçen University, Ağrı 04100, Turkey; muratyildirim@agri.edu.tr; muratyildirimphd@gmail.com
Received: December 19, 2022; Accepted: May 9, 2023; Available online: June 29, 2023
Citation: Yıldırım M, Aziz IA. Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social
support. Environment and Social Psychology 2023; 8(1): 1513. doi: 10.18063/esp.v8.i1.1513.
1. Introduction
Positive psychology emphasises the importance of human strengths and abilities in the promo-
tion of positive functioning[1]. With the recent movement of positive psychology, extensive interest
has been paid to positive psychological constructs and their role in the development of individuals
and society. In this regard, positive psychological constructs such as resilience, social support, and
psychological exibility have been considered focal points of psychological research.
1.1. Psychological exibility
Psychological exibility is dened as the ability to be aware of and adapt to changing internal
and external stressors with aligned values[2]. Also, psychological exibility is a dynamic and mul-
2Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support
ti-faceted construct including cognitive, psychological, affective and behavioural dimensions[3].
Furthermore, it can be viewed as the capability of being exible to the present moment depending
on the demand of the situation. Psychological exibility plays a key therapeutic target in acceptance
and commitment therapy. Psychological exibility had been studied with a variety of other related
constructs. There is evidence showing the relationships between resilience, social support, and psy-
chological exibility[4,5]. Although the conceptual and empirical links among these variables have
been established, to the best of my knowledge, there is no available research that explicitly exam-
ines the mediating eect of social support in the association between resilience and psychological
flexibility by using the newly developed measure of psychological flexibility described below. It
is important to note that earlier research assesses psychological exibility by using various other
measures including the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Scale[6] and the Acceptance and
Action Questionnaire[7]. The Psy-Flex Scale was developed and validated on dierent samples such
as community, clinical, and non-clinical[8]. However, Turkish validation of this new scale is needed
to use for the Turkish sample. As such, this study sought to examine the psychometric properties
and dimensionality of the Psy-Flex Scale in the Turkish language. The current study also aimed to
examine the mediating role of social support in the relationship between resilience and psychologi-
cal exibility using the Psy-Flex Scale.
1.2. Resilience
Resilience is a common phenomenon of fundamental human systems in the field of positive
psychology. The positive development of human functioning depends on the protection of these
systems in good working order, which would allow individuals to function properly in the face of
adversity or unpleasant life situations. In case of major impairments in these systems, it is more
likely that people experience a wide range of psychosocial and developmental problems throughout
their lives[9]. Available evidence in the extant literature revealed that resilience is related to a wide
range of positive outcomes such as greater aective experiences and ourishing[10], satisfaction with
life[11], forgiveness[12], social support, hope, and feeling belongingness[13]. Other research indicated
that resilience is associated with diminished levels of mental health problems[14], and psychological
adjustment issues[15]. These results suggest that resilience is an important psychological factor in
fostering positive human functioning. Although a series of empirical research has investigated the
direct link between resilience and psychological flexibility[16], evidence regarding the underlying
mechanisms between resilience and psychological exibility by considering the role of social sup-
port is limited. Considering all the above-mentioned studies, the current study seeks to address this
gap by investigating the mediating role of perceived social support in the relationship between resil-
ience and psychological exibility.
1.3. Social support
People need social support from others to deal with a wide range of stressors they face in their
daily lives. Social support is a multidimensional concept that refers to sources or support received
from family, friends, and signicant others[17]. Much research has examined the relationship between
social support with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. For example, a meta-analysis with two
hundred forty-six studies demonstrated that social support shared a signicant positive, yet small,
correlation with well-being[18]. Another meta-analysis study revealed that social support is related
to a wide range of outcomes including quality of life, well-being, health status, physical symptoms,
3
Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Yıldırım and Aziz
psychological symptoms, stress, depression, coping strategies, psychological adjustment, health
beliefs, health-promoting behaviours, and self-actualization[19]. It was also found to be positively re-
lated to character strengths, self-ecacy, optimism, self-esteem, resilience, positive aect, and sat-
isfaction with life[20,21]. Also, a signicant positive relationship was reported between social support
and psychological exibility[22]. Furthermore, social support was found to be related to reduced lev-
els of mental health problems[23]. These results suggest that social support is an important resource
that increased positive outcomes and decreases negative outcomes.
1.4. Psy-Flex Scale
The Psy-Flex Scale is a brief measure of contextually sensitive psychological exibility[8]. It is
useful in terms of containing items that explicitly refer to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy,
therefore, it can be utilised by clinicians to plan treatments that are contextually sensitive to change.
The Psy-Flex Scale is a unidimensional scale containing six self-reported items and has been pre-
sented to be a highly reliable and valid measure of psychological exibility[8,24,25]. In the original
validation study[8], the Psy-Flex Scale was found to be related to dimensions of existing measures of
psychological exibility, emotional well-being, social, well-being, psychological well-being, pres-
ence of meaning, search for meaning, somatization, depression, and anxiety. The divergent validity
of this scale has been established with non-psychological variables (e.g., age and gender) and com-
parison between clinical and non-clinical samples. Evidence of incremental validity was provided
with the prediction of unique variance in explaining well-being after controlling for the variance
explained by overall symptomatology[8].
1.5. Aims of the study
Based on earlier research, the following hypotheses were tested: (i) the Psy-Flex Scale has a
one-factor solution with high internal consistency reliability, (ii) resilience has a signicant positive
impact on social support and psychological exibility, (iii) social support also has a signicant pos-
itive impact on psychological exibility, and (iv) social support serves as a mediator between resil-
ience and social support.
2. Method
2.1. Procedure
Convenience and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit participants for this study.
Convenience sampling involved selecting easily accessible participants who were willing to con-
tribute to the study, while snowball sampling involved identifying initial participants who met the
study criteria and then asking them to refer their friends and acquaintances who may be interested
in taking part in the study. This study recruited participants through various social media platforms,
including Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The participants who met the criteria for inclusion
were sent the questionnaire, and those who willingly agreed to participate after reading the objec-
tives were included. The survey was anonymous, and participants accessed it through a secure link.
Information about the study was presented on the rst page of the survey, and before participating,
all participants provided online informed consent. The study guaranteed the condentiality and an-
onymity of participants’ responses. No incentives were oered to participants for their participation
in the survey. With regard to the translation procedure, the Psy-Flex Scale was validated in Turkish
4Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support
using the standard method of forward-backwards translation. The author of this study completed the
forward translation of the items from English to Turkish. Another bilingual researcher, who blinds
to the original version of the scale, carried out the back translation of the items from Turkish to Eng-
lish. There was high consistency between the translation and back translation of the scale in terms
of language equivalency.
2.2. Participants
The inclusion criteria for this study were to be 18 years old or older and uent in Turkish. A total
of 516 participants took part in this cross-sectional study. There were 270 (52.3%) males and 246
(47.7%) females. Their age ranged between 18 and 60 years, with a mean age of 27.08 years (SD =
8.53). Concerning their socioeconomic status, 66.7% belonged to average socioeconomic status, fol-
lowed by below-average (28.3%), and above-average (5.0%). More than two-thirds of participants
were single (69.4%) and 30.6% were married.
2.3. Measures
Psy-Flex Scale[8]. The Psy-Flex Scale is a newly developed unidimensional self-reported scale
for evaluating contextually sensitive psychological flexibility. The scale includes six items (e.g.,
“Even if I am somewhere else with my thoughts, I can focus on what’s going on in important mo-
ments”). Responses were given on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very seldom) to 5 (very
often). In the original paper, the scale yielded good psychometric properties[8]. For the purpose of
this study, the Psy-Flex Scale was validated in Turkish and a detailed description of its psychometric
properties can be found in the results section.
Brief Resilience Scale[26]. The BRS is a widely used unidimensional self-reported measure for
assessing the ability to “bounce back” from adverse situations. The BRS comprises six items (e.g.,
“I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times”) that are answered using a 5-point Likert-type scale
varying between 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). A total score for BRS can be comput-
ed after recoding the negatively worded items (items 2, 4, and 6), with a higher score indicating a
greater level of resilience. The Turkish validation of the BRS has satisfactory psychometric proper-
ties[27]. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.70 in this study.
Brief Perceived Social Support Questionnaire[28]. The BPSSQ is a unidimensional self-report-
ed scale constructed to measure individual dierences in receiving social support from other people.
The BPSSQ contains six items (e.g., “I know a very close person whose help I can always count
on.”) that are scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale varying between 1 (not true at all) and 5 (very
true). All items are added to produce an overall score for the BPSSQ, with a higher score signifying
greater levels of perceived social support. Good evidence of reliability and validity in Turkish has
been reported by Yıldırım and Tanrıverdi[29]. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.85 in this study.
2.4. Data analysis
Descriptive data were reported for individual items and variables of this study. Pearson’s corre-
lation was performed between resilience, social support, and psychological flexibility. Mediation
analysis (Model 4) was tested using SPSS PROCESS macro v.3.4 based on the recommendations of
Hayes[30]. The indirect eect was estimated with a bias-corrected 95% condence interval (CI) using
5,000 random bootstrap samples. The decision about the statistical signicance of the indirect eect
5
Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Yıldırım and Aziz
can be obtained when the lower and upper bounds of the 95% CI include 0[30]. All analyses were run
in IBM SPSS 26 and AMOS 26.
3. Results
3.1. Psychometric properties of the Psy-Flex Scale
Using Cronbach’s alpha coecient, we estimated internal consistency reliability for the measure
of Psy-Flex. The scale was found to have good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.80) by exceed-
ing the conventional acceptable threshold value of >0.70. There was no issue with the normal dis-
tribution of the items on the scale (skewnessrange = –0.33 and 0.05; kurtosisrange = –0.55 and –0.45).
The corrected item-total correlation ranged between 0.37 and 0.62. The results of this analysis are
presented in Table 1.
Exploratory factor analysis with maximum likelihood extraction was conducted to explore the
underlying factor structure of the Psy-Flex measure. The results indicated that Bartlett’s test for
sphericity, [χ2(15) = 920.479, p < 0.001] and Kaiser’s measure of sampling adequacy (KMO = 0.82)
were sucient for factor analysis. A one-factor structure that accounted for 50.69% of the total var-
iance (eigenvalues = 3.04) was found to represent the data. The scree plot also veried a one-factor
solution.
Furthermore, conrmatory factor analysis was used to examine if the hypothesised single-factor
solution of the Psy-Flex could be conrmed. The evaluation of the hypothesised model was based
on the popular data-model indices that include confirmatory fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis index
(TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square re-
sidual (SRMR). The cut-o values that present a “good” t are shown by CFI and TLI ≥ 0.95, RM-
SEA ≤ 0.08 and SRMR 0.05[31]. The measurement model initially provided a poor data-model t
statistic (χ2(9) = 104.971, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.895, TLI = 0.824, RMSEA = 0.144, and SRMS = 0.063).
One solution to address the poor data-model t is to covary error terms of items, which is a statisti-
cal technique used to allow modeling of correlated errors, improving estimated factor loadings, and
latent variable correlations and correcting measurement errors or biases. This technique is used to
obtain more reliable research ndings. Following the modication indices, we covaried items 5 and
6 to improve the data-model t. The nal model presented a good data-model t statistic 2(8) =
35.637, p < 0.01, CFI = 0.970, TLI = 0.943, RMSEA = 0.082, and SRMS = 0.041).
3.2. Testing mediation eect
Pearson product-moment correlation (see Table 2) indicated that psychological exibility was
Table 1. Factor loadings and descriptive statistics for the six items of the Psy-Flex Scale
Item M SD Skew Kurt rit αiid EFA loadings
Psy-Flex 1 3.15 1.10 –0.15 –0.55 0.60 0.76 0.67
Psy-Flex 2 2.87 1.09 0.05 –0.45 0.37 0.81 0.40
Psy-Flex 3 3.10 1.08 –0.06 –0.54 0.61 0.76 0.67
Psy-Flex 4 3.11 1.06 –0.03 –0.49 0.59 0.76 0.64
Psy-Flex 5 3.36 1.11 –0.33 –0.54 0.62 0.76 0.75
Psy-Flex 6 3.37 1.10 –0.33 –0.53 0.56 0.77 0.68
Note. M = mean; Skew = skewness; Kurt = kurtosis; rit = Corrected item-total correlation; αiid = Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted
6Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support
signicantly positively correlated with resilience (r = 0.31, p < 0.01) and social support (r = 0.41,
p < 0.01). Also, there was a signicant positive correlation between resilience and social support (r
= 0.36, p < 0.01). More importantly, a simple mediation analysis was carried out to test the mediat-
ing eect of social support on the relationship between resilience and psychological exibility (see
Table 3). The results showed that resilience was a positive predictor of social support (β = 0.36, p <
0.01) and explained 13% of the variance in social support. Resilience (β = 0.19, p < 0.01) and social
support = 0.34, p < 0.01) were found to signicantly positively predict psychological exibility
by accounting for 13% of the variance in psychological exibility (see Table 3 and Figure 1). The
indirect eect of resilience on psychological exibility through social support was signicant [eect
= 0.14, 95% CI (0.09, 0.19)] (see Table 3). Social support had a partial mediating role in the rela-
tionship between resilience and psychological exibility (see Table 3).
Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables
Descriptive statistics αCorrelation
Variable Mean SD Skewness Kurtosis 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
1. Age 27.08 8.53 1.31 1.10 - - –0.10* 0.15** 0.02 0.14** 0.14**
2. Gender - - - - - - –0.04 –0.02 –0.16** 0.02
3. Socioeconomic
status
- - - - - - 0.13** 0.16** 0.11**
4. Psy-Flex 18.97 4.64 –0.08 0.33 0.80 - 0.31** 0.41**
5. Resilience 18.80 4.09 –0.04 1.54 0.70 - 0.36**
6. Social support 19.57 5.70 –0.07 –0.78 0.85 -
Table 3. Unstandardized coecients for the proposed mediation model
Outcome
Antecedent M (Social support) Y (Psychological exibility)
Coe. SE t p Coe. SE t p
X (Resilience) 0.50 0.06 8.62 <0.001 0.21 0.05 4.42 <0.001
M (Social support) - - - - 0.28 0.03 8.11 <0.001
Constant 10.26 1.11 9.28 <0.001 9.53 0.93 10.24 <0.001
R2 = 0.13
F = 74.34; p < 0.001
R2 = 0.20
F = 63.41; p < 0.001
Path Eect BootSE BootLLCI BootULCI
Total indirect eect 0.35 0.05 0.26 0.44
Social support 0.14 0.03 0.09 0.19
Note 1: SE = standard error. β = standardized coecient. X = independent variable; M = mediator variable; Y = dependent variable.
Note 2: Number of bootstrap samples for percentile bootstrap condence intervals: 5,000.
Figure 1. The schematic diagram in the mediational eect of social support in the relationship between resilience and
psychological exibility.
Note: All standardised paths are signicant at **p < 0.01.
7
Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Yıldırım and Aziz
4. Discussion
In this paper, I evaluated the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Psy-Flex Scale
in a sample drawn from the Turkish general population. The paper also examined the mediating role
of social support in the relationship between resilience and psychological flexibility. The current
results present evidence for a unidimensional structure of the six-item on the Psy-Flex Scale. This
suggests that the Psy-Flex Scale is a valid tool for the assessment of the psychological exibility
construct in the Turkish population. This is consistent with previous research, which reported a good
t obtained by a one-factor model[8]. Concerning reliability, the results of this study are also similar
to the results of the original validation study[8].
Results from this study yielded that resilience was signicantly positively related to social sup-
port. This result suggests that individuals who have the ability to “bounce back” from adverse situa-
tions appeared to experience more perceived social support in their personal and social lives. These
findings are similar to the findings reported on healthy and unhealthy individuals showing that
resilience may foster social support[4]. Indeed, there is a reciprocal relationship between resilience
and social support[29,32]. That is, a high level of perceived social support may help individuals to gain
more condence in coping with diculties. A high level of resilience can also cultivate an increased
perceived social support. In this study, resilience and social support were signicantly positively re-
lated to psychological exibility. Previous research has demonstrated that higher levels of resilience
and social support may directly lead to an increased level of psychological exibility. For example,
a study found that resilience is found to contribute to adjustment via an increased level of psycho-
logical exibility[16]. Social support contributes to higher levels of psychological exibility[22]. De-
spite the direct relationships between the above-mentioned variables, limited studies explored the
underlying relationships between resilience and psychological exibility by considering the role of
social support. In the present study, we found that social support partially mediated the association
between resilience and psychological exibility. These results suggest that those who have a high
level of resilience seemed to receive more social support, which in turn leads to greater psycholog-
ical exibility. These ndings improved our understanding of the underlying psychological mech-
anisms between resilience and psychological flexibility. Studies indicated that people with lower
levels of resilience, social support, and psychological exibility tend to experience greater psycho-
logical distress and poor psychological well-being[5]. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the
psychological status of young adults, and social support can be used to improve the positive impact
of resilience on psychological exibility.
5. Implications
The current research has important implications not only for theory but also for practising
well-being and mental health practitioners. With regard to the theory, the current results could
further the available literature by giving an explanation of how resilience might promote greater
psychological exibility through social support. The ndings might also be fruitful to advance the
research by investigating the factors that could uncover the relationships of resilience to a variety of
outcomes. As for practice, psychologists, counsellors, and other well-being and mental health, pro-
fessionals could benet from the current ndings since it might potentially help them in tailoring,
designing, and implementing interventions aimed to enhance positive psychological resources that
8Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support
people have to achieve optimal levels of positive mental health and well-being alongside the related
development of functioning in dierent life domains.
6. Limitations
This study is not without limitations. A potential limitation of this study compared to the original
study[8] is that I did not compare the Psy-Flex Scale with other available measures of psychological
exibility such as the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire[7] and Multidimensional Psychological
Flexibility Scale[6]. Further psychometric properties of the Psy-Flex Scale (e.g., discriminant validi-
ty, incremental validity, and test-retest reliability) should be reported across dierent cultures, sam-
ples and over time to improve its utility for research and practice. Also, this study was cross-sec-
tional in nature to examine the relationships between the analysed variables using self-report
questionnaires. Causal relationships between the analysed variables cannot be drawn. Longitudinal
studies are needed to address this limitation.
7. Conclusion
In summary, the Psy-Flex Scale is a measurement of contextually sensitive psychological ex-
ibility and has good psychometric properties. The current findings supported the reliability and
construct validity of the Psy-Flex Scale in Turkish. Future directions for improving the cross-cul-
tural adaptation of psychological exibility measure may include the validation of this measure on
dierent samples, contexts and over time. Investigation of psychological exibility in relation to
resilience and social support further advanced the knowledge and understanding of empirical links
between these three variables.
Conict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conict of interest.
References
1. Seligman MEP. Positive psychology, positive prevention, and positive therapy. In: Synder CR, Lopez S (ed-
itors). Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005. p. 3–9.
2. Hayes SC, Strosahl KD, Wilson KG. Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of
mindful change. New York: Guilford Press; 2011.
3. Ben-Itzhak S, Bluvstein I, Maor M. The psychological exibility questionnaire (PFQ): Development, relia-
bility and validity. Webmed Central Psychology 2014; 5(4): 10–22. doi: 10.9754/journal.wmc.2014.004606.
4. Gori A, Topino E, Sette A, et al. Mental health outcomes in patients with cancer diagnosis: Data showing
the inuence of resilience and coping strategies on post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic symptoms.
Data in Brief 2021; 34: 106667. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.106667.
5. Tindle R, Moustafa AA. Psychological distress, social support, and psychological exibility during COV-
ID-19. Mental Health Eects of COVID-19. Cambridge: Academic Press; 2021. p. 89–101. doi: 10.1016/
B978-0-12-824289-6.00012-X.
6. Seidler D, Stone B, Clark BE, et al. Evaluating the factor structure of the multidimensional psychological
exibility inventory: An independent replication and extension. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
9
Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Yıldırım and Aziz
2020; 17: 23–31. doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.04.007.
7. Wolgast M. What does the acceptance and action questionnaire (AAQ-II) really measure?. Behavior Thera-
py 2014; 45(6): 831–839. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2014.07.002.
8. Gloster AT, Block VJ, Klotsche J, et al. Psy-Flex: A contextually sensitive measure of psychological exi-
bility. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2021; 22: 13–23. doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.09.001.
9. Masten AS. Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist 2001; 56(3):
227–238. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.227.
10. Yildirim M. Mediating role of resilience in the relationships between fear of happiness and aect balance,
satisfaction with life, and ourishing. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 2019; 15(2): 183–198. doi: 10.5964/
ejop.v15i2.1640.
11. Hu J, Ye B, Yildirim M, et al. Perceived stress and life satisfaction during COVID-19 pandemic: The medi-
ating role of social adaptation and the moderating role of emotional resilience. Psychology, Health & Medi-
cine 2023; 28(1): 124–130. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2022.2038385.
12. Aziz IA, Yıldırım M. Investigating relationship between psychological trait resilience and forgiveness
among internally displaced persons. Psychology, Community & Health 2020; 8(1): 263–274. doi: 10.5964/
pch.v8i1.313.
13. Yıldırım M, Aziz IA, Vostanis P, et al. Associations among resilience, hope, social support, feeling belong-
ingness, satisfaction with life, and ourishing among Syrian minority refugees. Journal of Ethnicity in Sub-
stance Abuse 2022; 1–6. doi: 10.1080/15332640.2022.2078918.
14. Yıldırım M, Arslan G, Ahmad Aziz I. Why do people high in COVID-19 worry have more mental health
disorders? The roles of resilience and meaning in life. Psychiatria Danubina 2020; 32(3–4): 505–512. doi:
10.24869/psyd.2020.505.
15. Yildirim M, Çağış Z, Batra K, et al. Role of resilience in psychological adjustment and satisfaction with life
among undergraduate students in Turkey: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Health and Social Sciences
2022; 7(2): 224–234. doi: 10.19204/2022/rlfr8.
16. Elliott TR, Hsiao YY, Kimbrel NA, et al. Resilience facilitates adjustment through greater psychological
exibility among Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans with and without mild traumatic brain injury. Rehabilita-
tion Psychology 2019; 64(4): 383–397. doi: 10.1037/rep0000282.
17. Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG, et al. The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Journal
of Personality Assessment 1988; 52(1): 30–41. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2.
18. Chu PS, Saucier DA, Hafner E. Meta-analysis of the relationships between social support and well-being
in children and adolescents. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 2010; 29(6): 624–645. doi: 10.1521/
jscp.2010.29.6.624.
19. Wang H, Wu S, Liu Y. Association between social support and health outcomes: A meta‐analysis. The Kao-
hsiung Journal of Medical Sciences 2003; 19(7): 345–350. doi: 10.1016/S1607-551X(09)70436-X.
20. Martínez-Martí ML, Ruch W. Character strengths predict resilience over and above positive aect, self-e-
cacy, optimism, social support, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology 2017;
12(2): 110–119. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1163403.
21. Yildirim M, Iqbal N, Khan MM, et al. Psychosocial needs and supports for street children in India: Stake-
holder perspectives. International Journal of Child Development and Mental Health 2020; 8(2): 19–28.
22. Tindle R, Hemi A, Moustafa AA. Social support, psychological exibility and coping mediate the associa-
tion between COVID-19 related stress exposure and psychological distress. Scientic Reports 2022; 12(1):
8688. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-12262-w.
23. Alshehri NA, Yildirim M, Vostanis P. Saudi adolescents’ reports of the relationship between parental fac-
tors, social support and mental health problems. The Arab Journal of Psychiatry 2020; 31(2): 130–143. doi:
10 Environment and Social Psychology (2023) Volume 8, Issue 1
Turkish validation of the Psy-Flex Scale and its association with resilience and social support
10.12816/0056864.
24. Block VJ. Malleable factors in the pursuit of mental health and well-being—Psychological exibility and
meaningful relationships [PhD thesis]. Basel: University of Basel; 2022. doi: 10.5451/unibas-ep86557.
25. Soares R, Cunha M, Massano-Cardoso I, et al. Assessing psychological exibility in adolescents: Validation
of PsyFlex-A. Revista Portuguesa de Investigação Comportamental e Social 2023; 9(1): 1–8. doi: 10.31211/
rpics.2023.9.1.284.
26. Smith BW, Dalen J, Wiggins K, et al. The brief resilience scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. Inter-
national Journal of Behavioral Medicine 2008; 15(3): 194–200. doi: 10.1080/10705500802222972.
27. Doğan T. Adaptation of the brief resilience scale into Turkish: A validity and reliability study. The Journal
of Happiness & Well‐Being 2015; 3(1): 93–102.
28. Kliem S, Mößle T, Rehbein F, et al. A brief form of the perceived social support questionnaire (F-SozU)
was developed, validated, and standardized. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 2015; 68(5): 551–562. doi:
10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.11.003.
29. Yıldırım M, Tanrıverdi FÇ. Social support, resilience and subjective well-being in college students. Journal
of Positive School Psychology 2021; 5(2): 127–135. doi: 10.47602/jpsp.v5i2.229.
30. Hayes AF. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based ap-
proach. New York: Guilford Publications; 2017.
31. Hu L, Bentler PM. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria
versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 1999; 6(1): 1–55. doi:
10.1080/10705519909540118.
32. Chen Q, Gao W, Chen B, et al. Ego-resiliency and perceived social support in late childhood: A latent
growth modeling approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021;
18(6): 2978. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18062978.
... symptoms. These findings resonate with prior and more recent research conducted across various cultural and demographic settings (Chu et al., 2010;Gülaçtı, 2010;Gariepy et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2018;Bender et al., 2019;Mohd et al., 2019;Watson et al., 2019;Alshehri et al., 2020;Cobo-Rendón et al., 2020;Grey et al., 2020;Xiao et al., 2020;Özmete and Pak, 2020;Bedaso et al., 2021;Ghafari et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2021;Yildirim and Aziz, 2023;Yıldırım and Green, 2023;Green et al., 2024). These compelling findings underscore social support as a pivotal resource stemming from an individual's social network. ...
Article
Full-text available
Social support has been associated with improved mental health; however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study aimed to explore whether perceived stress mediate the relationship between social support and positive affect, anxiety, and depression. Drawing from Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping theory, the study emphasized the influential role of social support in appraising stressful events. A cross-sectional survey was conducted online among 426 Filipino adults during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed measures including the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), the Positive Affect subscale of PANAS, and the Depression and Anxiety subscales of DASS-21. The hypotheses of the study were tested using mediation analysis. Consistent with the hypotheses, perceived stress significantly mediated the relationship between family and significant other support with positive affect, anxiety, and depression. Family and significant other support decreased perceived stress, increasing positive affect, and decreasing anxiety and depression. On the other hand, perceived stress did not mediate the relationship between friend support and positive affect, anxiety, and depression. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Article
Full-text available
Background: The existing literature has not adequately studied the influence of COVID-19 worry on mental health disorders. This study tested the mediating roles of resilience and meaning in life between COVID-19 worry and mental health disorders. Subjects and methods: We recruited 284 Arabic speaking young adults (60.6% females; mean age = 26.25±7.57 years) to complete the COVID-19 Worry Scale, Brief Resilience Scale, Meaning in Life Measure, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Results: Results showed that COVID-19 worry negatively predicted resilience and meaning in life and positively predicted mental health disorders. Furthermore, indirect effect of COVID-19 worry on mental health disorders via resilience and meaning in life was significant. Conclusion: These results will contribute to find effective measures to prevent mental health disorders and promote reduced mental health disorders from the perspective of mitigating COVID-19 worry and increasing resilience and meaning in life.
Article
Full-text available
Objective: To adapt and validate the Psy-Flex for the adolescent population (PsyFlex-A). The aim was to analyse the PsyFlex-A factor structure, reliability, the model's invariance between genders, and associations between the PsyFlex-A, sociodemographic variables, and other variables of interest. Method: The sample included 309 adolescents between 12 to 18 years old (M = 14.91) and a mean of 9.56 years of education. The participants completed a protocol comprising the PsyFlex-A and a set of other self-report measures assessing mindfulness skills (CAMM), cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance (AFQ-Y8), psychopathological symptoms (DASS-21), and the perceived quality of life and well-being (KidScreen-10). A subsample of 45 participants completed the PsyFlex-A four weeks after the first administration to conduct a test-retest reliability analysis. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to assess the scale's structure. A multi-group CFA was conducted to determine the measurement invariance across genders. Reliability and validity were also analysed. Results: The PsyFlex-A presented a single-factor structure and model invariance between genders, suggesting that the results are comparable between males and females. Moreover, it revealed adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It showed positive associations with mindfulness skills and quality of life and negative associations with cognitive fusion/experiential avoidance and psychopathological symptoms. Finally, significant gender differences were found, with boys revealing higher values of psychological flexibility than girls. Conclusion: The PsyFlex-A proved to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing Portuguese adolescents' psychological flexibility skills. The PsyFlex-A may be used as a screening instrument in educational and clinical settings.
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Cultivation of resilience is shown to reduce mental health problems and improve wellbeing. The effect of resilience on psychological adjustment problems and satisfaction with life is however not adequately discussed. This study investigated the predictive effect of resilience in psychological adjustment and satisfaction with life among undergraduate students during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a convenience sampling method was utilized to recruit undergraduate students from a public educational institution in Turkey. Psychometric valid tools, such as the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Brief Psychological Adjustment-6 (BASE-6) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were used to measure the primary outcomes of the study. Data were analyzed using the independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Of total 224 undergraduates participated in this study, nearly 74% were males and the mean age of the sample was 21.03±1.66 years. More than half of the participants had average socioeconomic status (53.57%) followed by above-average (40.18%) and below-average (6.25%). The results indicated that males and individuals who had low socioeconomic status reported greater psychological maladjustment problems. Furthermore, the resilience negatively predicted the psychological maladjustment (β = -0.31, p<0.01) and positively predicted satisfaction with life (β = 0.17, p< 0.05) after controlling for age, gender, and perceived socioeconomic status. Discussion: These results shed light on the relationship of resilience with psychological outcomes in terms of satisfaction with life and psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study point to the potential role of resilience in improving satisfaction with life and psychological adjustment among undergraduate students in Turkey. Additionally, efforts by practitioners and policymakers should be made in developing resilience-building interventions to foster post-traumatic growth among students. Take-home message: The current findings will serve as preliminary evidence to develop innovative preventative intervention programs aiming at reducing psychological adjustment problems and promoting satisfaction with life among undergraduate students in Turkey
Article
Full-text available
To date, research on refugee mental health has mainly focused on understanding the absence of psychopathology rather than on their well-being and associated positive aspects. The aim of this study was to examine the role of resilience, hope, belongingness, and social support in predicting satisfaction with life and flourishing among 361 minority Syrian refugees living in Iraq (age range = 18–60years, mean = 32.57, SD=10.05). Participants completed the Brief Resilience Scale, Adult Hope Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Scale, General Belongingness Scale, Satisfaction With Life Scale, and Flourishing Scale. Males reported significantly higher levels of resilience, belongingness, and flourishing compared to females. Demographic variables (age, gender, and economic level), resilience, hope, belongingness, and social support were correlated with life satisfaction and flourishing scores. While controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, resilience and hope were associated with life satisfaction and flourishing scores. However, belongingness and social support were only associated with flourishing scores. The findings suggest that equipping refugees with positive psychological resources could promote increased levels of life satisfaction and flourishing and thus enhance preventive psychosocial programs.
Article
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in psychological distress. However, protective factors such as social support, psychological flexibility, and coping mechanisms can help individuals cope with the effects of psychological distress. This study aimed to test a recent hypothesis suggesting that psychological flexibility is not necessarily a coping strategy but a mechanism that can influence the coping strategies an individual employs during stressful events. We tested a mediation model that COVID-19 concerns would contribute to higher levels of perceived social support, which would directly increase psychological flexibility, and finally test if the effect of psychological flexibility on distress was mediated by approach and avoidant coping strategies. The results show that social support facilitates higher levels of psychological flexibility. Further, that psychological flexibility indirectly reduces psychological distress by reducing avoidant coping and increasing approach coping strategies. Within the context of COVID-19, we have shown the importance of social support and psychological flexibility for reducing distress. We have provided further evidence that psychological flexibility might not be a coping mechanism but a strategy that leads individuals to engage in more approach coping strategies and fewer avoidant coping strategies.
Article
Full-text available
The present study mainly focused on college students during the COVID-19 outbreak and aimed to develop and examine a moderated mediation model between perceived stress and life satisfaction, with social adaptation during COVID-19 as a mediator, and emotional resilience as a moderator. A sample of 1032 college students participated in this study and completed questionnaires regarding perceived stress, social adaptation during COVID-19, emotional resilience, and life satisfaction. Findings indicated that 1) social adaptation during COVID-19 partially mediated the association between perceived stress and life satisfaction; and 2) emotional resilience moderated the relationship between perceived stress and social adaptation during COVID-19 as well as perceived stress and life satisfaction. These two relationships became stronger for college students with lower levels of emotional resilience. The results were discussed to illuminate the mechanism in relation to theoretical and practical implication for improving college students' life satisfaction during the period of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Article
Full-text available
Social support has been linked to numerous adaptive psychosocial health outcomes. The Brief Perceived Social Support Questionnaire (BPSSQ) is a newly developed measure of general social support. This study aimed to test the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the BPSSQ in Turkish language and tested the mediating effect of resilience in the relationship between social support and satisfaction with life. Participants included 202 college students (69.3% females), with a mean age of 22.58 years (SD=1.26) who completed online measures of social support, resilience, and satisfaction with life. As expected, the BPSSQ provided a one-factor structure with a satisfactory internal consistency. Social support significantly predicted resilience and satisfaction with life. Resilience also predicted satisfaction with life. Furthermore, the results supported the hypothesis of mediating role of resilience in the relationship between social support and satisfaction with life. These results are important in terms of providing evidence of the underlying mechanism between social support and satisfaction with life. Future intervention efforts aimed at increasing social support and satisfaction with life may benefit from resilience.
Article
Full-text available
This study explored the change trajectory of schoolchildren’s ego-resiliency and perceived social support and investigated the effect of perceived social support on ego-resiliency across four time points. A sample of 437 children aged 8–13 years (M = 10.99, SD = 0.70, 51.5% boys) completed assessments at four time points. The results indicated that ego-resiliency showed an increasing linear trend and perceived social support showed a declining linear trend. Perceived social support had a positive effect on ego-resiliency over time. In addition, the initial status of perceived social support negatively predicted the growth trend of ego-resiliency, and the initial status of ego-resiliency negatively predicted the declining trend of perceived social support. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Article
Psychological flexibility is increasingly studied in various contexts including clinical studies. The construct has been hypothesized to be a major determinant of mental health. Existing measures lack context-sensitivity (e.g, implicitly measuring it as a trait) and/or reference to a limited time frame. We developed a short self-report measure that covers all facets of the construct and is context-sensitive. Data was collected from four separate samples (n = 744), including a community (n = 346), non-clinical (n = 188), and two clinical (n = 163 in- and outpatients and n = 47 inpatients) samples from a psychiatric hospital. Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed a one-factor structure with excellent reliability (Raykov’s r = 0.91). Correlations with related (such as other measures of psychological flexibility and symptomatology) and unrelated constructs (such as age and sex) were all consistent with predictions. The Psy-Flex differentiated clinical and non-clinical samples and predicted unique variance in well-being. The Psy-Flex is an easily administrable questionnaire, useful in research and clinical settings. Its context-sensitive nature makes it applicable to repeated administrations aimed at capturing change.
Chapter
Due to the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), society has needed to adjust to government social distancing and quarantine measures to restrict the spread of the virus. Due to these restrictions, social isolation has limited individuals’ access to social support from friends, family, and their extended social networks. As a consequence, individuals must adjust to increased feelings of loneliness, anxiousness, frustration, and depression. Those who are unable to effectively cope with negative emotions (i.e., have low psychological flexibility), lack social support, and have lower levels of resilience are more likely to report higher levels of psychological distress and poor psychological well-being. In this chapter, we discuss the importance of social support and psychological flexibility to act as a buffer between the effects of COVID-19 on psychological distress and mental health. Given that individuals are unable to change the COVID-19 situation, being psychologically flexible will help cope with, accept, and adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic.