Huh? You wrote
Based on the findings of various research endeavours, four key protective factors which serve to support and promote resilience in all youth have been discerned. These are: the presence of healthy, supportive relationships between adults and youth; healthy peer to peer relationships; the ability of youth to develop and utilize internal and external problem-solving strategies, in order to affectively mediate adversity (including developing cognitive skills and understandings in order to better deal with stressful and uncertain situations); and healthy involvement with and commitment to a broader community, which includes the encouragement to contribute to the common good of that community. The existence of these over-arching protective factors are believed to help shield youth from such risk factors as trauma or severe stress experienced in catastrophes, as well as to help them "bounce back" after such experiences.
Applications of factor analysis in psychology Factor analysis is used to identify "factors" that explain a variety of results on different tests. For example, intelligence research found that people who get a high score on a test of verbal ability are also good on other tests that require verbal abilities. Researchers explained this by using factor analysis to isolate one factor, often called crystallized intelligence or verbal intelligence, that represents the degree in which someone is able to solve problems involving verbal skills. Factor analysis in psychology is most often associated with intelligence research. However, it also has been used to find factors in a broad range of domains such as personality, attitudes, beliefs, etc. It is linked to psychometrics, as it can assess the validity of an instrument by finding if the instrument indeed measures the postulated factors.
Factor analysis is used to identify "factors" that explain a variety of results on different tests. For example, intelligence research found that people who get a high score on a test of verbal ability are also good on other tests that require verbal abilities. Researchers explained this by using factor analysis to isolate one factor, often called crystallized intelligence or verbal intelligence, that represents the degree in which someone is able to solve problems involving verbal skills.
Factor analysis in psychology is most often associated with intelligence research. However, it also has been used to find factors in a broad range of domains such as personality, attitudes, beliefs, etc. It is linked to psychometrics, as it can assess the validity of an instrument by finding if the instrument indeed measures the postulated factors.
Anyway...There has been years of research...even beyond this more recent resilience research...on identifying protective factors in healthy child development. Yes, there have been many psychological instruments used, so assume factor analyses were done (though to be honest, I was not thinking of factor analysis when I used the term...though maybe I should). If you are interested, and can give you some good references on resilience research that I think are key.
But...even as long as psychology has been around...there still a dearth of validated psychological tests that have been validated to assess resilience in children, or to test trauma in children, or to test resilience and/or trauma in children in other cultures (which has been surprising for me to learn). It goes on, for example, there is hardly any research at all on the effects of disasters on women. Etc.
Social psychological research about the effects of disasters, about the efects of disasters on people in the developing world (etc) is really quite new. Most research is from the West. And a lot that is assumed, has not been "proved"...but then, as I assume you know, it is quite difficult to say with any assuredness that "X causes Y human behavior". Mostly we can point to significant relationships..."we see that x behavior is related to y behavior"...which goes back to the factor analysis point you made. Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!
So can you or can't you not "operationalise" healthy relationships? Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
But, yes, healthy relationships can be operationalized.
Its just challenging when a researcher is trying to do this "in the field", as opposed to in a more controlled clinic or university setting. There's a lot of variables that can come into play. Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!
