Table 2.
Demographics, resilience factors at baseline, average stress and mental health across T0-T3, and resilience factors and perceived stress during the pandemic by class.
| Trajectory classes | Test statistic | p | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Medium | Medium-to-low | Low | |||
| Demographics | ||||||
| n (%) | 38 (28.6) | 62 (46.6) | 21 (15.8) | 12 (9.0) | ||
| Cohort (% later cohort) |
68.4 | 56.5 | 90.5 | 75.0 | = 8.73 | 0.033 |
| Gender (% female) |
65.8 | 77.4 | 76.2 | 91.7 | = 3.72 | 0.293 |
| Age in years, M (SD) | 20.55 (1.74) | 20.35 (1.56) | 21.29 (2.26) | 20.42 (1.68) | = 3.99 | 0.262 |
| Resilience factors at baseline | ||||||
| Optimism, M (SD) | 9.26 (1.73) | 7.87 (2.36) | 7.86 (2.54) | 6.08 (2.71) | F(129) = 6.80 | <0.001 |
| Self-care, M (SD) | 4.38 (0.42) | 3.93 (0.49) | 4.19 (0.50) | 3.25 (0.94) | = 26.16 | <0.001 |
| Social Support, M (SD) | 4.51 (0.36) | 4.35 (0.49) | 4.21 (0.58) | 3.88 (0.72) | = 10.60 | 0.014 |
| Generalized self-efficacy, M (SD) | 30.45 (3.45) | 28.76 (3.27) | 27.57 (4.58) | 24.83 (3.19) | F(129) = 8.54 | <0.001 |
| Average mental health and stressor load across T0–T3 | ||||||
| Inverted GSI of the BSI-18, M (SD) | 66.95 (3.00) | 61.43 (5.28) | 54.48 (6.65) | 44.29 (6.22) | = 74.84 | <0.001 |
| WHO-5, M (SD) | 69.39 (8.14) | 51.19 (9.37) | 43.81 (9.16) | 31.83 (9.78) | F(3, 129) = 71.51 | <0.001 |
| Frequency of microstressor encounters, M (SD) | 48.39 (21.32) | 49.98 (22.09) | 55.58 (21.43) | 62.10 (24.51) | = 4.42 | 0.219 |
| Count of stressful life events, M (SD) | 3.07 (1.47) | 2.86 (1.45) | 3.07 (1.26) | 4.44 (1.96) | = 6.81 | 0.078 |
| Resilience factors and perceived stress during the pandemic (T4) | ||||||
| Optimism, M (SD) | 9.09 (1.87) | 7.14 (2.39) | 6.06 (2.96) | 5.36 (2.06) | F(3, 113) = 10.61 | <0.001 |
| Self-care, M (SD) | 4.10 (0.70) | 3.66 (0.74) | 3.51 (1.10) | 2.83 (0.56) | = 20.17 | <0.001 |
| Perceived emotional support, M (SD) | 14.75 (1.44) | 14.21 (2.12) | 13.11 (3.41) | 12.45 (2.38) | = 8.68 | 0.034 |
| Generalized self-efficacy, M (SD) | 31.59 (3.16) | 28.46 (3.46) | 27.17 (6.02) | 24.64 (2.94) | = 28.06 | <0.001 |
| Perceived stress, M (SD) | 19.66 (2.78) | 21.48 (3.51) | 21.00 (3.53) | 23.91 (2.17) | F(3, 113) = 5.19 | 0.002 |
Inverted GSI of the BSI-18, inverted Global Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (higher scores indicate better mental health); WHO-5, World Health Organization Well-Being Index. Where the requirements for analysis of variance (ANOVA) were not met, the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used instead. For data assessed during the pandemic, 117 participants provided complete data and were included in the analyses. To account for multiple tests, we set the significance at a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.0125 for analyses of baseline and T0-T3 data and 0.01 for analyses of pandemic data. All significant p-values were bolded.