Testing Models of Resilience in University Students: A Multi-Site Study

Emerging adulthood is characterized by marked increases in vulnerability to psychiatric illness. As such, understanding how risk and protective factors function to promote, or impede, resilience during early adulthood is critical. This pre-registered work is the first to test four leading models of resilience among emerging adults. A sample of 1,075 participants drawn from four international university sites were followed across two stressors: the transition to university (cross-sectional) and the COVID-19 pandemic (longitudinal). We found support for the compensatory model, which holds that risk and protective factors contribute additively to predict resilience, at both timepoints. Findings also support the risk-protective model, but only during the university transition, indicating that the influence of risk factors on negative outcomes during the university transition is buffered by protective factors. Neither the challenge nor protective-protective models were supported. Results have the potential to guide theory development by highlighting the dynamic nature of resilience and have implications for prevention and intervention efforts by underscoring the powerful influence of protective factors.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-025-00322-z.