Same storm, different boat? College students’ resilience during unexpected life events

Young adulthood is a critical developmental period marked by establishing identities, higher education, careers, and relationships. Unexpected life changes or sociohistorical events (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic) can alter life trajectories and exacerbate mental health challenges. Ninety-one college students (M age=23.1; 87% women; 77% White) completed a survey of pandemic-related scales and written narratives about their pandemic experiences; we used an explanatory mixed-method design to explore the relationship between pandemic experiences and health. Two-step cluster analysis of survey responses revealed groupings of participants and yielded three distinct experiences: (1) high level resilience (“Surfers”), (2) serious physical health concerns, but adequate mental health coping (“Swimmers”), and (3) significant mental health challenges (“Sinkers”). There were no significant group differences by demographic or contextual characteristics. A content analysis of written narratives yielded differentiating themes between groups, further corroborating quantitative results. Collectively, findings suggested positive self-rated mental and physical health may be protective against unexpected life events in young adults. Thus, identifying strategies to alleviate stressors associated with unexpected changes among college students is critical, especially for higher education administrators, educators, and mental health professionals to support young adults’ resilience in higher education settings.