Mental resilience is crucial for nursing students navigating academic and clinical challenges. While educational interventions aim to enhance resilience, individual characteristics and lifestyle factors may significantly influence outcomes. Thus, our objectives of this study were to: (1) Examine whether brief museum-based or empathy-video interventions affected resilience relative to a no-intervention control; (2) identify correlates of resilience, with particular attention to age, learning abilities, and internet use; and (3) explore the methodological implications of baseline imbalance in post-test-only designs. Fifty-four first-year nursing students (mean age 23.6 years, 85% female) were allocated on a non-random basis to three groups: a single, approximately 2-hour museum-based guided tour (n = 19), a roughly 12-minute empathy education video (n = 19), and a no-intervention control (n = 16). Post-intervention assessments included the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25), a self-reported learning-abilities scale, and lifestyle factors. Our primary finding was that neither the museum-based intervention nor the empathy video produced significant differences in resilience compared to control [intervention: 88.1 ± 13.5; video: 88.8 ± 15.8; control: 93.1 ± 13.7; F(2,51) = 0.613, p = 0.545, η2 = 0.023]. However, the control group was substantially older (26.4 ± 13.2 vs. ≈ 22.4 years), potentially confounding comparisons. Significant correlations emerged between resilience and age (r = 0.560, p < 0.001), learning abilities (r = 0.485, p < 0.001), and daily internet-use hours (r = −0.294, p = 0.031). Age and learning abilities thus emerged as strong positive correlates of resilience, while greater internet use showed a moderate negative association. The absence of intervention effects most plausibly reflects baseline age imbalance and insufficient intervention intensity rather than a failure of the underlying approaches. These findings underscore the importance of baseline assessment in intervention research and suggest that resilience programs should be developmentally tailored and incorporate digital-wellness components.
Citation: Magdalini Christodoulou, Evangelos C. Fradelos, Maria Antoniou, Vasiliki Vaitsi, Foteini Malli, Ioanna V. Papathanasiou, Dimitrios Papagiannis. Age, learning abilities, and internet use as correlates of mental resilience in nursing students: An exploratory comparative study[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2026, 13(4): 1087-1103. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2026056
Mental resilience is crucial for nursing students navigating academic and clinical challenges. While educational interventions aim to enhance resilience, individual characteristics and lifestyle factors may significantly influence outcomes. Thus, our objectives of this study were to: (1) Examine whether brief museum-based or empathy-video interventions affected resilience relative to a no-intervention control; (2) identify correlates of resilience, with particular attention to age, learning abilities, and internet use; and (3) explore the methodological implications of baseline imbalance in post-test-only designs. Fifty-four first-year nursing students (mean age 23.6 years, 85% female) were allocated on a non-random basis to three groups: a single, approximately 2-hour museum-based guided tour (n = 19), a roughly 12-minute empathy education video (n = 19), and a no-intervention control (n = 16). Post-intervention assessments included the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25), a self-reported learning-abilities scale, and lifestyle factors. Our primary finding was that neither the museum-based intervention nor the empathy video produced significant differences in resilience compared to control [intervention: 88.1 ± 13.5; video: 88.8 ± 15.8; control: 93.1 ± 13.7; F(2,51) = 0.613, p = 0.545, η2 = 0.023]. However, the control group was substantially older (26.4 ± 13.2 vs. ≈ 22.4 years), potentially confounding comparisons. Significant correlations emerged between resilience and age (r = 0.560, p < 0.001), learning abilities (r = 0.485, p < 0.001), and daily internet-use hours (r = −0.294, p = 0.031). Age and learning abilities thus emerged as strong positive correlates of resilience, while greater internet use showed a moderate negative association. The absence of intervention effects most plausibly reflects baseline age imbalance and insufficient intervention intensity rather than a failure of the underlying approaches. These findings underscore the importance of baseline assessment in intervention research and suggest that resilience programs should be developmentally tailored and incorporate digital-wellness components.
Conceptualization: Magdalini Christodoulou; Maria Antoniou; Dimitrios Papagiannis; Methodology: Maria Antoniou, Evangelos C. Fradelos; and Dimitrios Papagiannis. Software: Magdalini Christodoulou; Maria Antoniou; Vasiliki Vaitsi; and Dimitrios Papagiannis; Validation, Maria Antoniou, Evangelos C. Fradelos and Dimitrios Papagiannis; Formal analysis: Evangelos C. Fradelos, and Dimitrios Papagiannis; Investigation: Maria Antoniou, Evangelos C. Fradelos, and Dimitrios Papagiannis; data curation, Vasiliki Vaitsi; Evangelos C. Fradelos and Dimitrios Papagiannis; writing original draft preparation: Magdalini Christodoulou, Evangelos C. Fradelos, and Dimitrios Papagiannis; writing, review and editing: Magdalini Christodoulou; Evangelos C. Fradelos; Maria Antoniou; Vasiliki Vaitsi; Foteini Malli; Ioanna V. Papathanasiou and Dimitrios Papagiannis; supervision: Dimitrios Papagiannis; project administration: Dimitrios Papagiannis. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Evangelos C. Fradelos is an editorial board member for AIMS Public Health and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.
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Magdalini Christodoulou, Evangelos C. Fradelos, Maria Antoniou, Vasiliki Vaitsi, Foteini Malli, Ioanna V. Papathanasiou, Dimitrios Papagiannis. Age, learning abilities, and internet use as correlates of mental resilience in nursing students: An exploratory comparative study[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2026, 13(4): 1087-1103. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2026056
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