Several working adults attempt to improve their living conditions by studying for a university degree; they face challenges such as reconciling work, family, university, in a new context of uncertainty, for which they will require high resilience. The objective of this research article is to identify some variables that impact the resilience of working adults studying at the university. Therefore, four scales have been used: cd-risc 10, bnsg-s, mspss, swls to measure resilience, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, perceived social support, and life satisfaction, respectively, those that were answered by 114 adults during the months of August to September 2020. Moreover, the design was non-experimental, cross-sectional, correlational-causal type and various predictive, moderation, and mediation analyzes were performed among the variables. The results show that the main predictor of resilience is the satisfaction of the need for competence, alongside life satisfaction and the need for relationships, the need for autonomy mediate this predictive relationship. A hypothetical model is proposed, and the results are discussed in relation to the theory of self-determination as an explanatory framework of the source of intrinsic motivation and the construction of resilience of the adult student who works and studies.