A Multi-Faceted Approach to Understanding the Core Elements of Resilience in the Context of Youth Victimization

Youth victimization is a global challenge, affecting approximately one billion youth under the age of 18 each year. Although such experiences are associated with a range of adverse outcomes, many individuals demonstrate resilience following youth victimization. From a process-oriented perspective, resilience involves three core elements: adversity, protective factors, and outcomes reflecting positive adaptation. This three-paper dissertation advances understanding of these elements through a systematic review and an exploratory mixed method life history calendar study with racial/ethnic minority emerging adults. The first paper presents a systematic review examining how resilience has been conceptualized and operationalized in research with emerging adults with prior youth victimization. Findings indicate that rather than adopting a comprehensive approach, existing studies often examine a limited set of victimization experiences, protective factors, or outcomes at a time. Additionally, resilience outcomes are frequently operationalized using deficit-oriented measures, a misalignment with the strengths-based foundations of resilience theory. The second and third papers employ life history calendar data in which emerging adults reported (a) victimizations, other adversities, protective factors, and mental health symptoms across childhood and (b) current indicators of well-being. Paper 2 identifies and describes protective factors through qualitative coding and analysis supported by complementary quantitative analyses. Interpersonal strengths—particularly social support—emerged as especially salient, alongside regulatory strengths such as self-care practices, meaning-making strengths such as developing a sense of purpose, and environmental strengths such as supportive aspects of home and school. Paper 3 examines the prevalence of childhood victimization and the relationships between victimization severity, protective factors, and mental health symptoms in childhood, as well as associations with current well-being. Participants reported experiencing an average of seven distinct types of youth victimization. Greater victimization impact was associated with higher odds of moderate to severe depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Protective factor density was associated with higher odds of contemporaneous symptoms, reflecting the complex and non-linear nature of resilience processes. These findings underscore the importance of person-centered, comprehensive, and methodologically rigorous approaches to studying resilience following youth victimization. Greater conceptual clarity and consistency in operationalizing resilience elements is essential for advancing cumulative knowledge in the field.