The Heterogeneous Trajectories and Influencing Factors of Resilience among Adolescent after Natural Disasters

The current study examined the trajectories of resilience among Chinese adolescents after exposure to the 6•23 Yancheng tornado and explored potential predictors of distinct resilience trajectories. A longitudinal study was conducted on 246 adolescents. Trauma exposure, child post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and post-traumatic growth (PTG) were measured 6 months after the tornado, and resilience levels were measured at 6, 9, 12, and 18 months after the disaster. Based on Latent Growth Mixture Modeling (LGMM) analysis, three latent resilience trajectories were observed: the “Rebound after Hit” type (35% of the sample), the “Stable Rise after Decline” type (27% of the sample), and the “Sharp Decline and Gradual Rise” type (38% of the sample). Furthermore, results showed that older adolescents, which had higher subjective fear, with PTSD or PTG at 6 months after the disaster were more likely to be in the “Sharp Decline and Gradual Rise” type, boys were more likely to be in the “Rebound after Hit” type, and the adolescents under severer house damage after the disaster were more likely to be in the “Stable Rise after Decline” type. These findings proved that adolescents’ resilience levels are variable after the disaster, resulting from different influential factors, which provided a basis for further intervention after the disaster, that is, to pay attention to improve the resilience level of individuals in the “Sharp Decline and Gradual Rise” group, mainly by reducing their fear of disaster and providing sustained positive attention.