Resilience throughout and beyond COVID-19: a longitudinal analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychology and Mental Health
• Sociology
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Resilience, the ability to adapt to adversity, is crucial for coping with long-term challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
• While pandemic-related mental health impacts are known, resilience trajectories during and after the pandemic are understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine resilience trajectories in a Canadian population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To identify sociodemographic factors influencing resilience over time.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal analysis of the Canadian Personal Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (PICS) data from 741 respondents with at least two timepoints.
• Resilience measured using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).
• Linear mixed models used to assess temporal variations and sociodemographic impacts.

Main Results:

• Overall resilience levels were low throughout the study period, with median baseline scores significantly lower than pre-pandemic U.S. community samples.
• A subtle but significant increase in resilience was observed around 20 months post-baseline.
• Low income was consistently associated with lower resilience. History of psychiatric disorders was linked to lower baseline resilience, but this gap diminished over 24 months.

Conclusions:

• Canadian population resilience remained low during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a modest improvement noted later in the observation period.
• Socioeconomic factors (low income) and pre-existing conditions (psychiatric history) significantly impacted resilience, highlighting disparities in adaptive capacity.
• The diminishing effect of psychiatric history suggests potential for resilience development even among vulnerable groups over time.