Sophia Dragich
Research Mentor(s): Angela Ebreo
Mentor Department: Diversity Research & Policy Program/CSHPE
Authors: Sophia Dragich, Minso Choi, Angela Ebreo
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 16
Abstract
Youth mental health remains a growing concern, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has increased students’ vulnerability. Existing literature suggests that gender influences youth mental health, as there are differences among males and females when it comes to psychiatric disorders, depression, and substance abuse (Jiang et al., 2023; Hassan et al., 2022). Other research exploring youth response to adverse life events typically explores levels of resilience (e.g., the ability to cope with stress after facing difficult life situations; Robbins et al., 2018; Sürücü et al., 2021) and flourishing (e.g., the combination of psychological, emotional, and social well-being; Meghani et al., 2022; Salimi et al., 2023). I conducted this literature review to explore possible gender differences in pandemic-related resilience and flourishing levels of adolescent and college-age youth. After conducting citation searches in two databases (Web of Science and PsycInfo), I screened 79 articles and selected 23 as being relevant to my topic, using the following criteria: articles were published from 2020 to the present and discussed gender, resilience and/or flourishing, adolescents, and/or college students. There were mixed results when it came to the effect of gender on resilience for both adolescents and college students (Beames et al., 2021; López-Madrigal et al., 2021). However, there was no gender difference in flourishing for adolescents (e.g., Finch et al., 2023; Gilchrist et al., 2023) and mixed results for college students (e.g., Liu et al., 2021; Nyunt et al., 2021). I discuss the importance of considering other factors in addition to gender that impact the resilience and flourishing levels of vulnerable youth, such as family life, financial difficulties, and social support.
