Psychometric and neurobiological assessment of resilience in a non-clinical sample of adults

Background Resilient individuals are capable of adjusting and coping successfully in the face of adversity. Efforts to assess resilience and its biomarkers have focused on individuals with a history of trauma and related disorders. Objective To psychologically assess resilience in a non-clinical community population through questionnaires, and analyse the associations between the psychological parameters and salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) as putative biomarkers of resilience. Method An opportunistic sample (n = 196) completed a cross-sectional survey assessing resilience, self-reported depressive symptoms and anxiety, and possible correlates. A sub-sample (n = 32) selected in order to maximise variation of mental health, provided saliva samples for enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) detection of cortisol and DHEA-S. Results Resilience correlated negatively with depressive symptoms, trait anxiety and early life stress, and positively with self-efficacy, optimism, social support and wellbeing (all r > 0.40; all p-values ≤0.001 except for early life stress: r = −0.20; p ≤ 0.05). Resilience and DHEA-S concentrations correlated significantly (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.05); this relationship remained stable after adjustment for demographics. Gender differences were observed for DHEA-S and cortisol (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion Resilience is associated with positive aspects of psychological health and salivary DHEA-S, suggesting the latter can be treated as a biomarker of resilience in a non-clinical sample of adults.