An Investigation of Personal and Social-Contextual Resources as Mediators of the Influence of Duration of COVID-19 Pandemic Exposure and Mentoring Program Participation on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Adolescents

Although a sizable body of research indicates deterioration in the mental health of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mediating processes accounting for these effects as well as the potential for community-based prevention programs to offset and/or buffer declines in mental health during this period have received limited investigation. The present study addressed these gaps using data from a randomized controlled trial of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Community-based Mentoring Program in which there was naturally occurring variation in the extent to which the 18-month window between baseline and an initial follow-up assessment overlapped with the pandemic. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed support for hypothesized indirect associations of pandemic exposure with negative change in mental health and well-being via co-occurring declines in levels of personal and social-contextual resources, as well as a partially offsetting indirect association of mentoring program participation with improved mental health via an increase in personal resources. Mentoring program participation did not interact with pandemic exposure, and model pathways generally did not vary significantly by gender. Findings suggest that declines in adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic were linked to disruptions in their personal and social-contextual resources and that community-based mentoring interventions may at least partially offset pandemic-related declines in mental health.