Open Access

ARTICLE

Anxiety and Depression among High School Students: Roles of Psychological Resilience and Subjective Well-Being

Guangdong Zhou^1,2, Qing Zhang¹, Meishuo Yu^3,*

1 Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
3 School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China

* Corresponding Author: Meishuo Yu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Child and Adolescent Mental Health: Risk and Protective Factors, Assessment, Interventions and Lifespan Outcomes)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2026, 28(4), 5 https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2026.076721

Received 25 November 2025; Accepted 12 January 2026; Issue published 28 April 2026

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a critical period for mental health development, during which individuals may experience emotional challenges such as anxiety and depression. However, the patterns of how these symptoms develop and change over time in high school students, as well as the factors that influence these patterns, remain unclear. This study aims to identify distinct anxiety-depression symptom profiles and their transitions over time, while examining the roles of gender, subjective well-being, and psychological resilience in shaping these profiles. Methods: Two-wave longitudinal questionnaire data were collected from 913 high school students (57% female) in Shandong Province, China, between March and September 2022. Latent profile and latent transition analysis were used to examine anxiety-depression profiles and their transitions. Multinomial logistic regression was further conducted to examine the roles of gender, subjective well-being, and psychological resilience in predicting profile membership and transitions. Results: Four distinct anxiety-depression profiles were identified: normal (48%–52%), mild (20%–22%), moderate (24%–26%), and severe (4%). The normal group exhibited the greatest stability (70%), whereas the severe group showed the highest level of instability (30%). The overall level of anxiety and depression symptoms among females was higher than that of males, but males were more prone to severe anxiety and depression groups. Higher subjective well-being and psychological resilience were significantly associated with membership in lower symptom groups or transitions toward them. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of subjective well-being and psychological resilience as protective factors in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms among high school students. Interventions that target these psychological resources may help reduce the risk of more severe symptom trajectories during adolescence.

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Keywords

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