Unpacking the Relationship Between COVID-19-Related Stress and Quality of Life Among High School Students: A Socio-Ecological Resilience Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health challenge that causes negative effects on adolescents. This study aims to investigate the mediating roles of individual, family and community resilience in the association between COVID-19-related stress and quality of life according to the socio-ecological theory. The sample consists of 814 adolescents from high schools in Zhejiang province, China (mean age = 16.79 years; 51.11% girls), collected by a multi-stage cluster random sampling. The multiple mediation model is performed by SPSS macro PROCESS. The results show that individual resilience (β = −0.017, 95% CI [−0.044, −0.003]), family resilience (β = −0.028, 95% CI [−0.058, −0.008]) and community resilience (β = −0.031, 95% CI [−0.062, −0.007]) partially mediate the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and life satisfaction. Moreover, individual resilience (β = −0.028, 95% CI [−0.056, −0.008]), family resilience (β = −0.017, 95% CI [−0.042, −0.002]) and community resilience (β = −0.033, 95% CI [−0.065, −0.007]) also partially mediate the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and subjective well-being. This study not only elucidates the mediating roles of multidimensional resilience but also provides valuable insights into improving adolescent resilience across different systems.