Resilience levels and coping strategies: Challenge of higher education institutions

Abstract

This study investigated the levels of resilience and the coping strategies used by university students who are victims of the Colombian armed conflict, through the application of two contextualized and validated instruments: the Wagnild and Young Resilience Scale (1993), and the Modified Coping Scale (EEC-M), Colombia. The results reveal that the level of resilience where the highest number of students is located is the medium, with 29.2%; it is followed by the very high, with 23.3%; the high, with 22.3%; the low, with 15.5%; and the very low, with 9.7%. The coping strategies to which learners resort most are: religion, problem solving and positive re-evaluation; and those to which they resort least are: waiting, aggressive reaction, autonomy, seeking professional support, expressing coping difficulty and denial. In addition, the most widely used strategies in relation to the five levels of resilience are: problem solving, religion, seeking social support and emotional avoidance; and the least used are: autonomy, denial, expressing coping difficulties and reacting aggressively.