Understanding How Multiple Strengths Support the Mental Health of Adolescents and Young Adults in a Gender-Diverse Sample

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Abstract
Adolescents and young adults are facing a mental health crisis, with disproportionate burden among youth with diverse gender and sexual identities. Resilience science highlights the importance of modifiable strengths and protective factors as targets for prevention. The Resilience Portfolio Model (RPM) conceptualizes resilience as a multidimensional system of strengths across regulatory, interpersonal, meaning-making, and environmental domains that promote well-being following adversity. This secondary analysis study examined whether strengths across these domains were prospectively associated with mental health and whether these associations differed across social identity groups. Data were drawn from a subsample (N = 1584) from Project Lift Up, a national longitudinal study of 4981 adolescents and young adults (ages 13–22 years), including an oversample of sexual and gender minority youth. Participants completed a baseline survey and follow-ups at six-month intervals. Strengths across the four RPM domains were assessed at different waves (Waves 1–4), and mental health symptoms were assessed at Wave 1 and Wave 5 using the DSM-5-TR Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure. Multiple strengths were independently associated with subsequent global mental health symptoms after adjustment for baseline symptoms, adversity, demographic characteristics, and social determinants of health. Mentoring, hope, self-compassion, and recovering positive affect were associated with lower Wave 5 global symptoms, whereas self-care was associated with higher symptoms. Other interpersonal and environmental strengths were not independently associated with global symptoms. Evidence for moderation was limited to two exploratory interactions involving sexual minority identity, indicating that recovering positive affect and activism may operate differently for these youth. Findings highlight the value of examining multiple dimensions of resilience simultaneously and suggest that regulatory, meaning-making, and selected interpersonal strengths may be particularly relevant to subsequent mental health during adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Funding Information
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH128269)

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