Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Date of Award

Winter 2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

College of Science and Health

First Advisor

Joanna Buscemi

Abstract

Exposure to childhood adversity is common, unequally distributed, and strongly linked to negative outcomes across development. Efforts to improve well-being should consider protective factors across multiple levels, in addition to addressing the structural causes of adversity. Traditional approaches to resilience, such as cumulative risk and interaction models, provide useful information but do not capture the full complexity of how adversities and protective factors are connected. Network analysis offers a way to examine these interconnections by mapping associations and clusters of variables. This study uses data from the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to explore the combined network structure of childhood adversity and resilience factors in adolescence and examine associations with adult well-being outcomes using Bayesian Gaussian graphical modeling and multivariate multiple regression. The analytic sample included 20,310 participants (50.3% female; M age = 15.04 years) drawn from a racially and ethnically diverse U.S. adolescent sample (61.5% White, 23.3% Black, 17.0% Hispanic/Latino, 7.7% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 3.6% American Indian/Native American, and 9.5% Other). Poverty functioned as a central adversity node with connections to multiple adversities and negative associations with parental education, insurance status, and neighborhood safety. Abuse-related variables clustered together, particularly physical and emotional abuse, while sexual abuse remained relatively isolated. School connectedness, parent-child relationship quality, and poverty emerged as key bridging nodes. Poverty and neighborhood safety were uniquely associated with poorer adult functioning, while parental education, parent-child relationship quality, and school connectedness were associated with more favorable outcomes. These findings underscore the importance of multisystem intervention approaches targeting both structural conditions and relational protective factors.

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