Emotional resilience of college students with single parents

Abstract

This study explored the emotional resilience of college students raised by single parents and enrolled in a private higher education institution, specifically Central Philippine University. Utilizing a quantitative research design, the study gathered data from 305 purposively and snowball-sampled respondents through both face-to-face and online surveys. A two-part instrument was employed: a Personal Factors questionnaire, which included the Introversion-Extroversion Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC 25) to assess emotional resilience levels. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS version 25, with descriptive and inferential techniques such as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and Kruskal-Wallis Test. Findings revealed varied emotional resilience scores across different parent-child sex combinations, family income brackets, and personality traits. In particular, respondents in father-son households and extroverted individuals recorded lower resilience scores. However, results showed no statistically significant differences in emotional resilience when analyzed according to parent-child sex combination, family income, and introversion- extroversion traits. The study concluded that emotional resilience among Filipino college students raised by single parents may be more deeply influenced by cultural and relational factors, such as familial closeness and community support, rather than by financial status or personality traits alone. Based on these findings, the study offers recommendations for students, parents, mental health professionals, guidance counselors, government agencies, and future researchers to better support and understand the emotional development of students from single-parent households.