The resilience myth: relationships among mental health wellbeing, campus connection, and resilience in Queer community college students

Queer students in community colleges often face compounded forms of adversity that impact their psychological well-being and academic performance. Guided by Critical Trauma Theory and Minority Stress Theory, this study examined the structural and psychosocial pathways linking Queer identity, trauma exposure, and educational outcomes in a large sample of community college students (N = 446). Using structural equation modeling, we tested a serial mediation model in which Queer identity predicted higher levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and college trauma exposure (CTE), which in turn influenced mental health well-being, campus connection, resilience, and self-reported grade point average (GPA). The model demonstrated excellent fit, and findings revealed significant indirect effects of Queer identity on GPA via trauma exposure and reduced psychosocial functioning. Resilience emerged as the most proximal predictor of GPA, fully mediating the effects of connection and well-being. Rather than locating academic difficulty within individual students, the findings underscore how structural trauma and institutional marginalization contribute to educational inequity. Implications for institutional policy and practice, and future research are discussed.