How Do Creativity and Social Support Affect the Resilience of Mediterranean University Students? A Cross-National Study in the Post-Pandemic Period

Abstract

After the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, several articles have described the fragility of young adults, such as students, highlighting the severity, frequency, and nature of mental distress. However, less research has examined the resources of young people, such as their creative competence and their ability to draw on a social network. Furthermore, the analysis of these resources is not very common in international comparative studies. The main aim of this cross-national study is to investigate whether creativity factors such as creative personality and divergent thinking together with social support predict resilience in college students, controlling for gender and nationality, in a sample of college students from Italy and Spain, European Mediterranean countries particularly affected by the pandemic. The following instruments were used to measure these constructs: The Creative Personality Scale, the Runco Ideational Behavior Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale. A total of 287 college students participated, 147 from Italy and 140 from Spain, with an average age of 22 years. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between Italian and Spanish students for all variables except resilience. The hierarchical regression shows that divergent thinking and social support are predictors of resilience for the whole sample. In light of these results, it may be important for universities to continue investing in divergent thinking and social support through workshops and activities to promote student resilience.

Keywords

• emerging adults
• creativity
• social support
• resilience
• university students
• COVID-19