Online social networks and resilient profile in university students with disabilities

Knowing if the use of online social networks is related to some personality types has been a topic of interest in the last years. This could be the case for some personal skills related to social interaction, such as the resilience. The present work investigates if young students with disabilities, using online social networks, have some strength such as resilience more developed. The sample consists of 96 university students with different types of disabilities (physical, intellectual, visual and hearing). Participants responded to an adapted Spanish version of the resilience scale (Resilience Scale; Wagnild & Young, 1993) of Rogers, Chamberlin, Ellison & Crean (1997), designed to measure this capacity. Participants are aged between 18 and 32 years, the mean age was 22.28 (SD=5.32). The results revealed statistically significant differences between resilient profiles with respect to the use of online social networks. High scores for resilience were found among online social networks' regular users. This suggests that the use of online social networks could be related to resilience, hence the importance of a deeper analysis of this relation. It could be useful for programs aimed at increasing strengths of students with disabilities.