Resilience, the capacity to maintain or regain functionality in the face of adversity, is a dynamic process influenced by individual, familial, and community factors. Despite its variability, distinct resilience trajectories can be identified within populations, yet the predictors defining these distinct groups remains largely unclear. Here, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ages 0-18), we quantify resilience as the remaining variance in psychosocial functioning after taking into account the exposure to adversity. Growth mixture modeling identified seven distinct resilience trajectories, with over half of the study population maintaining resilience throughout early life. Factors increasing the likelihood of resilient trajectory membership included a less emotional temperament, high cognitive abilities, high self-esteem, low levels of autistic social traits, strong sibling relationships, high maternal care, and positive school experiences. Among the socioeconomic factors considered, maternal education – a significant indicator of socioeconomic status – and birth-order were associated with resilient trajectories. Our findings underscore the importance of fostering cognitive abilities, self-esteem, social relationships, positive school experiences, and extracurricular engagement to bolster resilience in adversity-exposed individuals and communities. This research informs resilience-focused interventions in mental health, education, and social policy sectors, and prompts further exploration of socioeconomic influences on resilience trajectories.

Prior research has documented elevations in levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors among children in lower income families in comparison to more advantaged peers. However, most studies focus on behavior problems at a single point in time or within a short developmental period. Associations between income dynamics and developmental trajectories of behavior problems over time are less understood. To address this, the current study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (N = 7,476; 50.8% male) to examine how income dynamics (annual income and income volatility) across three distinct developmental periods from early childhood to early adolescence relate to trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems. Group-based mixture modeling revealed a five-group trajectory model for externalizing behavior and a four-group trajectory model for internalizing behavior. Higher cumulative annual income predicted greater likelihood of belonging to the low-stable group compared to the other, more problematic groups for both externalizing and internalizing trajectories. In addition, income losses predicted higher risk of membership in any group other than the low-stable group for internalizing and externalizing behavior. Developmental period-specific income dynamics, though not as consistent as cumulative dynamics, also predicted trajectory group membership.