A Longitudinal Analysis of the Mediation of Cognitive Flexibility Between Psychological Maltreatment‐Resilience in Adolescents

ABSTRACT Background The ability to be resilient in the future may be impacted by psychological maltreatment suffered in the past. To remain resilient in the face of psychological maltreatment, adolescents need cognitive abilities. In order to better understand the relationship between psychological maltreatment and resilience in adolescents, the current study will look at the longitudinal mediating function of cognitive flexibility. Therefore, by exposing the causal linkages between the notions, a significant gap in the literature has been addressed. Methods A half‐longitudinal design and autoregressive analysis of the cross‐lagged panel model were utilized to investigate the links between psychological maltreatment, cognitive maltreatment and resilience. The study included 259 male and 449 female high school students, for a total of 708 adolescents. Results The results indicate that the relationship between psychological maltreatment and resilience is mediated by cognitive flexibility on a longitudinal scale. By limiting cognitive flexibility, psychological maltreatment results in inflexible structure. Adolescents are less resilient when they lack cognitive flexibility. The psychological structure is therefore more brittle. Conclusion The development of resilience may therefore be aided by increasing cognitive flexibility in those who have experienced psychological maltreatment. Cognitive flexibility should be the main emphasis of resilience‐building programmes for adolescents who have experienced psychological maltreatment.