Having close friendships and caring parents in adolescence consistently predicted higher post-traumatic growth in midlife in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting adolescence as an important developmental period for resilience during later-life crises.
Key Findings
Results
Close friendships in adolescence consistently predicted higher post-traumatic growth in midlife across multiple PTG subscales.
Adolescent predictors were measured in 1992 and PTG was assessed in 2020, spanning 28 years.
The association held in both univariate and multivariate (adjusted) regression models.
PTG was measured using three subscales: relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation of life from a short version of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory.
Sample size was N = 2,215 from a population-based longitudinal study.
Results
Caring parents in adolescence consistently predicted higher post-traumatic growth in midlife.
Parental care was assessed as an adolescent predictor in 1992.
The association remained significant in both univariate and adjusted multivariate models.
This finding applied across the PTG subscales examined.
No significant moderation effects of gender were observed for this predictor.
Results
Social acceptance in adolescence was associated with increased PTG in univariate analyses but not in adjusted multivariate models.
Social acceptance was one of the social relationship variables assessed in 1992.
The association did not survive adjustment for other covariates in multivariate analyses.
This suggests the effect of social acceptance may be confounded by or mediated through other variables such as close friendships or parental care.
Results
Mental health problems in adolescence were univariately associated with greater scores on the appreciation of life PTG subscale.
The association between adolescent mental health problems and appreciation of life was found only in univariate, not multivariate, analyses.
Mental health was among the psychological predictors assessed from the 1992 adolescent data.
The effect was specific to the appreciation of life subscale rather than relating to others or personal strength subscales.
Results
Immigrant status predicted greater appreciation of life in both univariate and multivariate models.
Immigrant status was among the sociodemographic characteristics assessed as adolescent predictors.
The association with the appreciation of life subscale persisted after adjustment in multivariate models.
This was one of the sociodemographic variables that remained significant in adjusted analyses.
Results
Higher parental education in adolescence was associated with lower scores on the personal strength PTG subscale.
Parental education was assessed as a sociodemographic predictor from the 1992 adolescent data.
The inverse association with personal strength persisted in multivariate models.
This suggests that adolescents from higher socioeconomic backgrounds may experience less growth in perceived personal strength following trauma in midlife.
Results
No significant moderation effects of gender were observed for any of the adolescent predictors of PTG.
Gender moderation was explicitly tested for all predictors in the regression models.
This finding indicates that the identified adolescent predictors of PTG operated similarly for both males and females.
The absence of gender moderation was consistent across all three PTG subscales.
Methods
This study represents the first investigation of adolescent predictors of post-traumatic growth in midlife using a 28-year longitudinal design.
The study used a population-based longitudinal sample of N = 2,215 participants.
Adolescent data were collected in 1992 and PTG was measured in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most existing PTG studies rely on cross-sectional designs, making this one of the longest prospective studies of PTG predictors.
PTG was assessed using a short version of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory covering three subscales: relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation of life.
What This Means
This research suggests that the quality of social relationships during adolescence has long-lasting effects on how people respond to major life crises decades later. Specifically, teenagers who had close friendships and caring parents were more likely to experience post-traumatic growth — meaning they reported positive psychological changes such as feeling stronger, more connected to others, or having a greater appreciation for life — when facing the COVID-19 pandemic nearly 30 years later in midlife. This was found in a study that followed over 2,200 people from 1992 through 2020, making it one of the longest studies of its kind.
The study also found that immigrant status in adolescence was linked to greater appreciation of life following the pandemic, while having parents with higher education was associated with somewhat less perceived personal strength growth. Interestingly, having more general social acceptance as a teenager appeared to matter in initial analyses, but this effect faded when other factors were taken into account, suggesting that the quality of close relationships (friends and parents) matters more than broader social status. Notably, these patterns were similar for both men and women.
This research suggests that adolescence may be a critical window for developing the social and emotional foundations that support resilience during crises in adulthood. Investing in programs that help young people build close friendships and supportive family relationships could have benefits that extend far into the future, potentially shaping how people cope with and grow from traumatic events even decades later.
Andersen I, Hafstad G, Solberg O, von Soest T. (2026). Adolescent predictors of post-traumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a 28-year longitudinal study.. European journal of psychotraumatology. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2026.2666967