Mentalizing abilities, autistic traits, and coping strategies as predictors of resilience in Lebanon

Abstract

The Lebanese people have suffered long periods of social, political, and economic hardship but it has also strengthened their endurance. Studies have been done on the relationship between mentalizing abilities, coping strategies, and resilience in the Lebanese population, but constructs were studied separately; however there is limited research on autistic traits and no research on their correlation and whether they predict resilience. The current research used a set of four different questionnaires, the Autism Spectrum Quotient Short (AQ-Short) the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), the Coping Self-efficacy scale (CSES), and the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), to assess the relationship between autistic traits, mentalizing abilities, coping strategies, and resilience respectively. A sample of 157 Lebanese adults (above 18 years of age) (M = 27.83, SD = 8.00) completed the surveys, 91 (58%) participants were female, and 66 (42%) participants were male. Autistic traits were negatively correlated with the certainty subscale of the RFQ coping self-efficacy, and resilience and positively correlated with uncertainty subscale of the RFQ. Both coping self-efficacy and resilience were found to be positively correlated with certainty (and negatively correlated with uncertainty). Resilience was positively correlated with certainty and coping self-efficacy, but negatively correlated with uncertainty. The results of the regression showed that autistic traits and coping self-efficacy predicted resilience, with coping self-efficacy retained the highest significance. Mentalization did not significantly predict resilience in this study. As autistic features may raise the risk of stress and hinder the use of healthy coping strategies (Jia et al.,2019), ASD symptom severity also affects the ability to mentalize (Deschrijver et al., 2016). More resilient people who have a more positive outlook and a stronger belief in themselves and their abilities (coping self-efficacy), and their circumstances are more likely to use active, task-oriented coping strategies, whereas less resilient people are more likely to use passive and avoidant coping strategies (Muniandy et al., 2021).