Differential Adaptation to Adversity: A Latent Profile Analysis of Youth Engagement With Resilience-Enabling Cultural Resources and Mental Health Outcomes in a Stressed Canadian and South African Community

Abstract

Using person-centered latent profile analyses, this article reports two distinct sub-groups—nominal versus robust cultural allegiance—that characterize how a sample of 14- to 24-year-olds from stressed environments in South Africa ( n = 576, nfemales = 314, nmales = 257) and Canada ( n =V481; nfemales = 270, nmales = 211) engage with four cultural resources (spirituality, religiosity, family tradition, and community tradition). It considers how nominal versus robust cultural allegiance is associated with youths’ self-reported symptoms of depression and conduct disorder, age-group, and gender. In doing so, the article addresses pre-existing resilience studies’ general inattention to patterns of differential adaptation in how specific groups of youth adjust to adversity, and the role of cultural resources in youth mental health. The results draw attention to the importance of understanding resilience in sociocultural context and urge mental health practitioners and other resilience champions to be circumspect in their work with at-risk youth about which cultural resources they leverage for which mental health outcomes.