A person‐centered and genetically informed approach toward characterizing multidomain resilience to neighborhood disadvantage in youth

Background Examining resilience to adversity across multiple behavioral domains (e.g., psychological well‐being, social functioning) can better characterize positive development and inform novel prevention and intervention efforts. However, few studies have employed person‐centered methods to examine individual profiles of resilience across multiple domains in youth. Further, research exploring contextual predictors of resilience has rarely used genetically informed designs, which are critical for eliminating potential confounds. Methods The current study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to extract profiles of resilience across psychological, social, and academic domains in 708 adolescent twins exposed to neighborhood disadvantage, a pervasive form of early life adversity. Next, associations between profile membership and parenting, peer, and neighborhood social processes were examined. Lastly, co‐twin control analyses were conducted to explore whether associations between resilience profile membership and social processes were environmental versus genetic in origin. Results Youth were grouped into three resilience profiles: (1) High Multidomain Resilience (63%), (2) Low Psychological Resilience, High Social Resilience (19%), and (3) Low Multidomain Resilience (18%). Profiles differed in experiences of parenting (i.e., parental involvement, conflict), peer characteristics (i.e., friend drug‐related behaviors, popularity), and neighborhood processes (i.e., social cohesion, informal social control, positive social norms). Follow‐up analyses within‐twin pairs revealed that the association between higher resilience and parenting (higher nurturance, lower conflict) was at least partially environmental in origin. Conclusions Youth show distinct profiles of resilience across psychological, social, and academic domains, which are uniquely related to processes at the family, peer, and neighborhood level. Further, the association between resilience and parenting is in part environmentally mediated, suggesting a modifiable pathway to boost resilience in adolescents exposed to neighborhood disadvantage.