Resumen: Introduction. Bullying is one of today¿s biggest problems in Public Health. It occurs very
frequently, especially in adolescence, and action is needed to lessen its causes and alleviate its
consequences. Research has shown that behavior problems usually interact with other risk and
protection factors, as well as with factors of etiological development. The objective of this
investigation was to establish a hypothetical relationship between personal self-regulation,
resilience, coping strategies and engagement-burnout, which would serve as a foundation for
new lines of intervention at university.
Method. A total of 253 university students participated in this research. Assessment
questionnaires for personal self-regulation, coping strategies, resilience and positive-negative
emotionality were completed on an anonymous, voluntary basis during class time, at different
points during the 2012-2013 academic year. Correlation analyses and structural analysis were
performed, using an ex post-facto design.
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92 Jesús de la Fuente, Lucía Zapata, M. Mariano Vera et al.
Results. Results showed significant association relationships between self-regulation and
resilience, between resilience and type of coping strategies used to cope with stress, and
between resilience and burnout-engagement.
Discussion and conclusions. Greater personal self-regulation is significantly associated
and interdependent with a greater level of resilient behavior, and resilient behavior in turn is
similarly related to more problem-focused coping strategies, and more engagement behavior
in dealing with stressful situations. The results suggest a line of research for skill-training
programs as a means to deal with bullying. This evidence should be applied to intervention
programs, both for training in personal self-regulation, and for implementing resilient
behaviors and coping strategies with engagement behavior for managing this type of stressful
situation. Future investigations should explore this line of work, which has not been fully
considered to date.