A Resilient Society, a Calmer Mind? National Resilience and Mental Well-Being Among Filipino Emerging Adults

Article information

Mental health is often discussed as if it exists mainly inside the individual: thoughts, emotions, coping skills, personality, or biology.

What this paper is about

Mental health is often discussed as if it exists mainly inside the individual: thoughts, emotions, coping skills, personality, or biology.

But young people also live inside families, schools, workplaces, communities, political systems, and nations.

This study asks a broader question:

Could the way young adults perceive their society also be related to how mentally well they feel—especially when they are already experiencing elevated depressive distress?

The study focuses on perceived national resilience. This does not mean an objective rating of how resilient the Philippines actually is. Instead, it refers to how people perceive their country: whether they identify with it, trust its public institutions, see social cohesion around them, and believe society can cope with crises.

The study then examines two possible psychological bridges between national resilience and mental well-being:

peace of mind, or a sense of inner calm, harmony, and reduced psychological turmoil; and
life satisfaction, or a person’s overall evaluation of how satisfied they are with their life.

The central idea is that what happens “out there” in society may be connected to what happens “in here” psychologically.

Why this matters

Emerging adulthood—roughly ages 18 to 29—is a period of major transition. Young people are exploring identity, becoming more independent, entering higher education or work, developing intimate relationships, and interacting more directly with public institutions.

These transitions can already be stressful.

They also happen within wider social conditions. Pandemics, disasters, armed conflict, economic insecurity, political instability, corruption, disinformation, and declining trust in institutions can influence how safe, hopeful, and socially connected young people feel.

This is especially relevant in the Philippines, where young adults navigate recurring natural hazards alongside persistent challenges involving mental healthcare access, inequality, institutional trust, and social cohesion.

The study therefore draws on the psychosocial pathways model, which proposes that wider social conditions can become connected to health through more immediate psychological and social experiences.

In simple terms:

society → psychological experience → mental well-being

The study tests whether peace of mind and life satisfaction statistically help explain this link.

What the researcher did

The study used data collected through an online survey from June to July 2023.

Participants were Filipino emerging adults:

aged 18–29 years;
living in the Greater Manila Area; and
recruited through social media and personal networks.

The larger research project initially had 1,148 valid respondents. For this study, the sample was restricted to respondents who scored at or above the screening threshold on the depression component of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale.

This resulted in a final analytic sample of 920 emerging adults at risk for depression.

An important qualification is needed here.

“At risk for depression” did not mean that these participants had been clinically diagnosed with depressive disorder.

The cut-off was used only as a screening indicator of elevated depressive distress. The threshold was originally established in an American validation sample and has not been established as a diagnostic threshold for Filipino emerging adults.

The study measured:

perceived national resilience;
peace of mind;
life satisfaction;
mental well-being; and
demographic factors including age, sex assigned at birth, and household income.

The researcher then conducted a parallel mediation analysis with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap samples.

What the study found

1) Perceived national resilience was associated with better mental well-being

Young adults who perceived greater national resilience also tended to report better mental well-being.

The standardized total association was β = .314.

This means that feeling that one’s society has stronger identity, cohesion, institutional trust, and capacity to cope with crises was positively associated with positive mental functioning.

Importantly, this relationship remained statistically significant even after accounting for age, sex assigned at birth, and household income.

But this does not establish that national resilience causes better mental health.

Because the data were collected at one point in time, the direction could also work partly in reverse. Young adults who feel mentally better may evaluate their country and institutions more positively.

2) National resilience had a particularly strong relationship with peace of mind

Perceived national resilience was positively associated with peace of mind.

Young adults who viewed their society as more cohesive, trustworthy, and resilient also tended to report a greater sense of internal calm and harmony.

This makes psychological sense.

If the wider social environment feels stable, fair, trustworthy, and capable of responding to crisis, everyday life may feel more predictable and manageable.

For young adults already experiencing depressive distress, this sense of social security may be especially important.

3) Peace of mind was strongly associated with mental well-being

Peace of mind was also strongly associated with better mental well-being.

Its standardized association with mental well-being in the model was β = .484.

This was one of the strongest relationships in the analysis.

Peace of mind is not simply happiness. It refers more specifically to serenity, harmony, reduced internal turmoil, and a sense of psychological calm.

This distinction may be particularly relevant in Asian and Filipino contexts, where harmony and relational stability can carry strong cultural value.

4) Peace of mind was the major indirect pathway

The statistical indirect association from national resilience to mental well-being through peace of mind was significant.

The standardized indirect effect was β = .166.

Using the study’s ratio calculation, this pathway represented about 53% of the total observed association between national resilience and mental well-being.

This does not mean that national resilience “causes” peace of mind, which then “causes” mental well-being. A cross-sectional mediation analysis cannot demonstrate that sequence.

What it does show is that the pattern of relationships is highly consistent with peace of mind being an important psychological bridge between perceptions of society and positive mental health.

5) Life satisfaction also mattered—but much less

Perceived national resilience was positively associated with life satisfaction, and life satisfaction was positively associated with mental well-being.

There was therefore also a statistically significant indirect pathway through life satisfaction.

However, it was much smaller.

The standardized indirect effect through life satisfaction was only β = .017, compared with β = .166 through peace of mind.

The study estimated that the life-satisfaction pathway represented about 5.5% of the total association.

So both psychological assets mattered, but they did not matter equally.

Why might peace of mind matter more?

The paper offers several possible explanations.

First, peace of mind may be closer to a person’s immediate psychological experience. It captures calmness, harmony, and the absence of internal turmoil. Life satisfaction, by contrast, requires a broader cognitive judgment about one’s life as a whole.

Second, peace of mind may be more closely connected to the experience of whether the surrounding social world feels secure and manageable.

Third, there may be a cultural component.

In collectivist settings such as the Philippines, psychological experiences connected to harmony, social cohesion, and relational stability may be especially salient.

This interpretation remains tentative. The study was not designed to prove why the peace-of-mind pathway was larger, and future cultural and longitudinal research is needed.

6) The relationship was not entirely explained by peace of mind and life satisfaction

Even after both psychological pathways were included, perceived national resilience remained significantly associated with mental well-being.

Its remaining standardized direct association was β = .130.

Together, peace of mind and life satisfaction statistically accounted for about 58.5% of the total association, but not all of it.

This suggests that other pathways may also matter.

Future research could examine factors such as:

social support;
belonging;
hope;
coping;
perceived safety;
civic participation;
economic security;
trust;
sense of control.

The full model explained 43.7% of the variance in mental well-being.

What makes this study different?

Much mental health research asks what individuals can do to become more resilient.

This study turns part of the question around.

It asks what it means for an individual to live within a society that they perceive as resilient.

That distinction matters.

If mental health is influenced partly by people’s experience of social justice, solidarity, belonging, and institutional trust, then mental health cannot be treated entirely as an individual responsibility.

Teaching coping skills matters.

Providing therapy matters.

But the quality of the social world also matters.

A society can itself become part of the psychosocial environment in which young adults either struggle or flourish.

What this means for early mental health intervention

The findings support a broader approach to preventive and early mental health work.

Mental health professionals working with emerging adults can ask not only:

“How are you coping?”

but also:

“How safe, fair, connected, and trustworthy does the world around you feel?”

Young people’s views about institutions, society, solidarity, and belonging should not automatically be treated as distorted thoughts that need correction.

They may also contain meaningful information about the real social conditions in which young people are trying to build adult lives.

Bottom line

Among Filipino emerging adults screening at risk for depression, perceiving the country as more resilient was associated with better mental well-being.

Part of this association operated statistically through peace of mind and life satisfaction, but peace of mind was by far the stronger pathway.

The broader message is important:

Mental well-being is personal, but it is not only personal.

Young adults develop psychologically within social and institutional environments. Supporting their mental health therefore requires attention to both inner psychological resources and the wider social conditions that shape whether life feels secure, fair, connected, and manageable.

Policy and practice recommendations

1) Look beyond symptoms in early mental health assessment

Professionals working with young adults can explore experiences of social belonging, institutional trust, perceived fairness, and security alongside individual symptoms and coping.

2) Support peace of mind as a preventive psychological resource

Universities, workplaces, primary-care settings, and youth services can offer evidence-informed stress management, reflective practices, mindfulness-based activities, psychologically safe peer spaces, and restorative opportunities for social connection.

3) Do not use well-being interventions as substitutes for treatment

Peace-of-mind and well-being programs should complement, not replace, screening, professional assessment, and evidence-based treatment when depressive symptoms are clinically significant.

4) Strengthen psychologically safe social environments

Young adults need settings where they can form relationships, participate meaningfully, express concerns, and experience belonging without fear of humiliation or exclusion.

5) Treat institutional trust as relevant to public mental health

Transparent communication, responsive public services, fair procedures, and accountable institutions may form part of the social environment within which young people experience mental health.

6) Create meaningful opportunities for youth participation

Community and civic engagement can give young people opportunities to develop belonging, efficacy, and social connection rather than positioning them merely as recipients of mental health programs.

7) Promote equitable access to public services

Mental health promotion is more credible when young adults can also access education, healthcare, social protection, and other public resources fairly.

8) Study these pathways longitudinally

Future studies should follow young people over time to determine whether changes in perceived national resilience precede changes in peace of mind and mental well-being—or whether the relationships work in multiple directions.

Important limitations

The findings should be interpreted carefully.

The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causality or temporal ordering.

The sample was recruited non-randomly from the Greater Manila Area, limiting generalizability to all Filipino emerging adults.

All measures were self-reported in the same survey, making common-method and response biases possible.

The depression screening threshold was not validated specifically as a diagnostic threshold among Filipino emerging adults.

The participants therefore should not be described as having diagnosed depression.

Most importantly, the findings apply primarily to mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention, not to curative or rehabilitative treatment for diagnosed depressive disorders.

Glossary of key terms

Emerging adulthood — A developmental period, commonly spanning ages 18–29, characterized by identity exploration, increasing independence, changing relationships, and transitions into adult roles.
Emerging adults at risk for depression / EAARFDs — In this study, young adults who scored above a screening threshold for elevated depressive distress. This does not mean they had a clinical diagnosis of depression.
National resilience — Broadly, a society’s capacity to withstand crises while maintaining essential functioning.
Perceived national resilience — A person’s perception of their country’s resilience, including national identity, trust in public institutions, social cohesion, and confidence in society’s ability to cope with adversity.
National Resilience Scale–Short Version / NR-13 — The 13-item scale used to measure perceived national resilience.
Mental well-being — Positive mental functioning, including experiences such as clear thinking, usefulness, connection, coping, and positive psychological functioning.
SWEMWBS — Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, the measure of positive mental well-being used in the study.
Peace of mind — An internal state characterized by calmness, harmony, serenity, and reduced psychological turmoil.
Life satisfaction — A person’s overall cognitive judgment about how satisfied they are with their life.
Psychological asset — A positive psychological resource that may support adaptation and well-being.
Psychosocial pathways model — A framework proposing that wider social conditions can affect health through more immediate psychological and social pathways.
Distal psychosocial factor — A comparatively broader or more socially distant factor that may influence health, such as perceived societal resilience.
Proximal psychosocial factor — A factor closer to an individual’s immediate psychological experience, such as peace of mind or life satisfaction.
Parallel mediation analysis — A statistical model that examines several possible indirect pathways between a predictor and an outcome at the same time.
Indirect association — A statistical relationship in which a predictor is associated with an intermediate variable that is, in turn, associated with an outcome. In cross-sectional research, this does not prove a causal mechanism.
Direct association — The remaining relationship between the predictor and outcome after proposed intermediate variables are included in the model.
Bootstrapping — A statistical method that repeatedly resamples the data to estimate uncertainty around effects, particularly useful for indirect associations.
K10-Dep — The six-item depression component derived from the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and used in this study for risk screening.
Screening threshold — A score used to identify people who may have elevated risk and could benefit from further assessment. It is not automatically a diagnosis.
Institutional trust — Confidence that public institutions are reliable, competent, fair, and responsive.
Social cohesion — The extent to which people experience solidarity, connection, trust, and social integration within society.
Preventive mental health — Efforts intended to reduce risk or strengthen protective resources before severe mental health problems develop.
Early intervention — Support provided when difficulties or elevated risks are emerging, with the aim of preventing worsening problems.

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Jerome Cleofas