Individual Resilience as Human Capital Stock: Neighborhood Social Capital, Environmental Perceptions, and Dynamic Pathways Across COVID-19 Phases

This study, grounded in the social ecological theories, investigates how the pathways linking neighborhood relationships, perceived environmental quality (PEQ), and individual resilience (IR) differed between the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic period. The empirical focus is on Chinese international students (CIS) in the UK, who experienced a unique form of “double exclusion” during the pandemic. Multi-phase data collection was conducted through questionnaire survey using a pre-then-post design ( n = 146). Specifically, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to validate the dimensions of resilience as a contextual and dynamic construct, followed by a higher-order mediation model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore relationships between main latent constructs both during the pandemic and its aftermath. EFA confirmed sample adequacy (KMO > 0.9, Bartlett’s test p < 0.001) and validated the identification of first-order latent constructs for IR. Findings from PLS-SEM analysis revealed that during the pandemic, both structural and functional dimensions of neighborhood relationship were associated with IR through distinct mediation effects of PEQ. In the post-pandemic period, however, the pattern of associations differed: the mediation effect of PEQ on the relationship between structural neighborhood ties and IR was no longer significant, while PEQ remained a full mediator in the relationship between functional dimensions of neighborhood relationship and IR. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of IR as a stock of human capital. Neighborhood-based social capital functions as the primary investment, while perceived environmental quality acts as the efficiency channel through which this investment is translated into resilience outcomes. This interpretation offers an account of how resilience protection and accumulation may differ between crisis and post-crisis contexts.