Ego-resilience, stress and anxiety predicting psychological well-being of adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable growing phase marked by physical, emotional, psychological, and social changes. During this phase, adolescents are particularly vulnerable to stress and anxiety — driven by fear of failure, academic overload, and peer competition —which significantly impacts their psychological well-being. This study examined how ego resilience, perceived stress, and anxiety predict the psychological well-being of adolescents. A quantitative, predictive correlational design was employed with 61 adolescents (aged 13–18) from urban private schools in Delhi, India, selected through disproportionate stratified sampling. The Perceived Stress Scale, Ego Resilience Scale, Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered. Ego resilience was significantly positively associated with self-acceptance (r = .353, p = .005). State and trait anxiety demonstrated the strongest negative associations with self-acceptance (r = −.643 and r = −.591, respectively) and environmental mastery. Perceived stress significantly and negatively predicted environmental mastery (r = −.448) and self-acceptance (r = −.412). Together, all the predictors explained 16.6% of the variance in psychological well-being (F (4, 56) = 2.78, p = .035, R² = .166). While the overall regression model significantly predicted psychological well-being, none of the individual predictors reached a statistically significant level independently, suggesting that ego resilience, perceived stress, and anxiety collectively contribute to psychological well-being rather than any single factor acting as a dominant predictor. Findings support the need for school-based anxiety management and resilience-building interventions to promote adolescent psychological well-being.