Character Strengths as Predictors of Resilience and Perceived Stress: A Post Pandemic Factor-analytic Study

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Saptadipa Pal (Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University Kolkata, West Bengal)

The COVID-19 pandemic left a lasting mark on the mental health of young Indian adults, and elevated stress remained common even in 2023. This study examined how character strengths relate to perceived stress and resilience in a sample of 140 Indian young adults (mean age 22.0 years, SD = 2.4; 91 women, 48 men). An exploratory factor analysis of the 24 character strengths measured by Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS-72) (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) produced four interpretable factors after Promax rotation, which we labelled Hope-Zest, Intellectual-Aesthetic, Justice-Civic, and Restraint. Together these factors accounted for 54.1% of variance, with sampling adequacy excellent (KMO = .91). Multiple regression showed that the four factors explained 17.9% of variance in resilience, with the Intellectual-Aesthetic factor as the strongest unique predictor (β = .30, p = .007), and 8.8% of variance in stress, with the Hope-Zest factor as the strongest unique negative predictor (β = -.32, p = .009). Welch t-test comparisons produced a striking gender pattern in which men scored higher than women on Zest (d = 0.65), Curiosity (d = 0.49), Self-Regulation (d = 0.41), and Leadership (d = 0.34), with women reporting marginally higher stress (d = -0.33). Resilience did not differ by gender. Findings are read in light of the disproportionate post-pandemic mental health burden carried by young women in India, and we discuss what they imply for strengths-based intervention work in Indian counselling settings.