Competition between the positive characteristics system and the psychopathological system among adolescents： Less vulnerability or more scarring?

Background: The alleviating effect of positive youth development (PYD) on psychopathological symptoms (PS) represents the less vulnerability hypothesis, while the damaging effect of PS on PYD represents the competitional hypothesis, or the scar hypothesis. From a dynamically systematic perspective, this study examines the two hypotheses across adolescents’ developmental stages and environmental adversity.Method: Two longitudinal waves of 40473 adolescents (48.4% girls, Mage=11.73±2.29; Nearly-adolescence=20272, Nmiddle-adolescence=13405, Nlate-adolescence=6796) were analysed via a cross-lagged network panel model. Results: The results showed that competition indeed exists between the PYD and PS systems, while the alleviating effect from PYD (effect=0.163) is greater than the damaging effect from the PS system (effect=0.081) but lower than the self-loop effect within the PS system (effect=0.176). The PYD components with the most alleviating effects are self-esteem (effect =0.055), emotion regulation (effect =0.039), and self-regulation (effect =0.018). With adolescents maturing (early, middle, and late adolescence), the alleviating effect surpasses the damaging effect (p0.001) and self-loop effect (p 0.001) in the PS system. When adversity (low, moderate, and high) increases in severity, the alleviating effect also surpasses the damaging effect (p 0.001) and self-loop effect (p0.001) in the PS system. In addition, resilience plays a central role in alleviating the PS system only when adversity is high. Conclusion: Compared with the scar hypothesis, the less vulnerability hypothesis showed a more powerful impact. Early and adversity-aimed interventions aimed at promoting adolescents’ positive attributes are the most beneficial. The central PYD components should be treated as core targets in future intervention programs.