Stress, Coping, and Resilience Across the Transition from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT. Cumulative stressors during the critical developmental period of adolescence increase risk for long-term emotional and behavioral problems into adulthood. Thus, it is urgent that we: (1) understand the impact of cumulative stress on adolescents as they transition into early adulthood and (2) identify protective factors that promote their resilience and wellbeing. Various coping mechanisms, including family support, positive peer relationships, mindfulness, and critical consciousness (social awareness and engagement), have been identified as potentially beneficial and protective for adolescents. We lack rigorous longitudinal research, however, on the development of these coping strategies across adolescence, the association of distinct coping strategies with emotional and behavioral health (EBH) over time, and the potential for positive coping strategies to protect against harmful effects of cumulative stress. The proposed longitudinal study will assess stress, coping, and EBH among adolescents in Baltimore. We will leverage participants and data from a previous NICHD-funded trial with longitudinal data collected at four time points with Baltimore City adolescents. We will augment this sample by recruiting additional Baltimore adolescents, aiming for a total sample of 650 young people ages 14-18. We will follow these young people over four years (until ages 18-22). Participants will complete online surveys twice per year assessing multiple stress exposures and coping strategies, as well as three domains of EBH (emotional wellness, mental health problems, and substance use). We will conduct in-depth interviews with a subset of youth and, separately, with their caregivers to gain more insight into how youth cope with stress and what kinds of activities they engage in that are meaningful to them. Qualitative themes will enrich our quantitative analyses on stress and coping and factors that may protect against the harms of cumulative stress. We will develop a Youth Advisory Board to engage input from young people in our target population at all stages of this research. Using procedures effective in our prior work, we will also train young people to conduct qualitative interviews with adolescent participants to enhance trust and rapport. Study analyses will be critical for expanding theory on risk and resilience among adolescents transitioning into adulthood. Findings will also directly inform policy and intervention strategies to promote youth mental health, including interventions to promote positive youth coping strategies.