Inconclusive evidence for a mediated association between childhood adversity and resilience: A reexamination of Suriano and Valentino (2026)
Abstract
Drawing on the covariance matrix published by Suriano and Valentino, we reexamined the evidence underlying their proposed mediation model linking adverse childhood experiences with resilience. We show that the reported pattern of associations can be reproduced almost exactly by a conceptually distinct latent-variable model that does not rely on the influencing ordering specified in the original study. In this alternative framework, adverse childhood experiences, resilience, positive humor, and tolerance for ambiguity are treated as indicators of a broader latent characteristic, namely core self-evaluation. The results highlight an important challenge in observational research: a single covariance structure may be consistent with multiple theoretical explanations. As a result, correlational evidence alone provides limited justification for privileging one explanatory account over competing models. Researchers should therefore evaluate plausible alternative specifications before drawing strong conclusions about psychological mechanisms.
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BibTeX
@misc{sorjonen2026inconclusive,
title = {{Inconclusive evidence for a mediated association between childhood adversity and resilience: A reexamination of Suriano and Valentino (2026)}},
author = {Kimmo Sorjonen and Bo Melin and Marika Melin},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/y3t5c_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/y3t5c_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Inconclusive evidence for a mediated association between childhood adversity and resilience: A reexamination of Suriano and Valentino (2026)
AU - Kimmo Sorjonen
AU - Bo Melin
AU - Marika Melin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/y3t5c_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/y3t5c_v1/
AB - Drawing on the covariance matrix published by Suriano and Valentino, we reexamined the evidence underlying their proposed mediation model linking adverse childhood experiences with resilience. We show that the reported pattern of associations can be reproduced almost exactly by a conceptually distinct latent-variable model that does not rely on the influencing ordering specified in the original study. In this alternative framework, adverse childhood experiences, resilience, positive humor, and tolerance for ambiguity are treated as indicators of a broader latent characteristic, namely core self-evaluation. The results highlight an important challenge in observational research: a single covariance structure may be consistent with multiple theoretical explanations. As a result, correlational evidence alone provides limited justification for privileging one explanatory account over competing models. Researchers should therefore evaluate plausible alternative specifications before drawing strong conclusions about psychological mechanisms.
ER -