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The effect of cultural identity on psychological resilience

Vir S Chowdhary & Dr Jessica Matyas

Rochester Christian University, Department of Psychology, Rochester Hills, MI 48307

Introduction

Methods

Conclusions & �Future Research

References

Results

  • An individual’s cultural identity is an important factor which affects one’s sense of purpose, social relationships, and overall perception of life and society (Niyazova & Madiliyeva, 2022).

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  • Resilience is the ability to overcome adversity by restoring well being and adjusting to challenging situations and stressors (Zhou et al., 2025).

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  • Existing literature has differing viewpoints pertaining to cultural identity and its impact on resilience. Differences between collectivistic cultures and individualistic cultures and their resilience levels are also important to consider.

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  • It was hypothesized that one’s resonance with their cultural identity would improve overall levels of resilience. Another hypothesis was that age and gender would be important variables in improving resilience levels.

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  • The sample size consisted of 65 participants. All were neurotypical.

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  • Questions consisted of demographic questions, specific questions relating to ethnicity and nationality and resonation with/ strength in their cultural identity.

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  • Finally, participants were asked to answer 25 questions based on daily stressors and perception on psychological resilience from the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003).

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Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R.. T. (2003). Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t06346-

Niyazova, A., & Madaliyeva , Z. (2022). Impact of Resilience on Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Intellectual Disability . https://doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2022.10.04.3.

Zhou, S., Jiang, L., Li, W., & Leng, M. (2025). Meaning in life from a cultural perspective: the role of cultural identity, perceived social support, and resilience among Chinese college students. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 91.

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  • The current study focused on understanding the effect one’s cultural identity has on their psychological resilience.
  • The current study showed that the more an individual resonates with their cultural identity, the stronger their overall resilience levels are.
  • Conversely, one’s ethnicity or nationality did not have a statistically significant effect on resilience levels and neither did gender and age.
  • The present study would benefit from including larger and more diverse samples to improve the accuracy and generalizability of the study.
  • The present study may also benefit from including scales and questions relating to other social psychological concepts such as self-efficacy, subjective well-being, and subjective happiness levels.

Figure 1. Strength in Cultural Identity. Percentages of participants’ resonance with/strength in cultural identity

Figure 2. The Relationship between Strength in Identity and Resilience. A one way ANOVA was conducted  F(3, 58) = 2.19, p > 0.05. A trend towards significance was found after a Tukey-Kramer post hoc test was conducted

Figure 3. The relationship between Ethnicity and Resilience. A one way ANOVA was conducted F(3, 57) = 0.29, p > 0.05 Marginal and non statistically significant results were found when comparing these variables.

Figure 4. The Relationship between Nationality, Ethnicity, and Resilience. An independent Student’s t-test was conducted t(24.09) = 0.29, p > 0.05 and no statistically significant difference was found between American and Indian participants, respectively.

Figure 5. The Relationship between Strength in Identity and Control of Life. A one way ANOVA was conducted  F(3, 58) = 1.46, p > 0.05. A trend towards significance was found when a Tukey-Kramer post hoc test was conducted.

Figure 6. The Relationship between Gender and Resilience An independent Student’s t-test was conducted T(54.08) = -0.73, p > 0.05 and no statistically significant difference was found between male and female participants, respectively.