Strengths Associated With Positive Youth Development After Child Maltreatment: Application of the Resilience Portfolio Model

Abstract

Understanding how protective factors and strengths operate to promote positive youth development is critical for supporting youth who have experienced childhood maltreatment. Guided by the Resilience Portfolio Model, including the poly-strengths framework, this study examined how both the configuration (i.e., strengths portfolios) and cumulative presence (i.e., number of strengths) of multi-level strengths predict adolescents’ prosocial behaviors and academic achievement. Data were drawn from the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and included 357 adolescents (M_age = 13.21 years; 40.34% boys). Latent class analysis was conducted to identify distinct patterns of strengths, and Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis was used to examine the cumulative effects of poly-strengths. Results indicated that adolescents in the Multi-domain resilience portfolios group consistently demonstrated the best prosocial and academic outcomes. A future-oriented group that struggled with regulation generally appeared to have higher functioning than a well-regulated group with limited meaning and connection. Although the overall number of strengths (i.e., poly-strengths) predicted greater prosocial skills, it did not significantly predict academic achievement. These findings provide empirical support for resilience models that account for both the cumulative and configurational nature of strengths in youth development following maltreatment.