Main findings
mental distress
POSITIVE
Positive associations of civic engagement with youth mental health have been observed in earlier studies. These studies have mainly assessed the associations using variable-centered analytical approaches. In the present study, we used a person-centered approach to investigate different trajectories of mental health and to examine how these trajectories were associated with diverse dimensions of civic engagement. We also examined the influence of SES and gender on the different trajectories. Based on theoretical and analytical appraisal, we identified three trajectories of mental health: an optimal trajectory (with lower scores on mental distress and higher scores on mental well-being), an intermediate trajectory (with average scores on both mental distress and mental well-being), and a sub-optimal trajectory of mental health (with relatively higher scores on mental distress and lower scores on mental well-being). Contrary to our expectation, higher levels of civic engagement were not associated with the optimal trajectory of mental health in comparison to the other trajectories. However, we found higher levels of SES to be associated with the optimal trajectory when compared to the two other trajectories. Moreover, for gender, we also found that females relative to males, were more likely to belong to the intermediate and sub-optimal trajectories of mental health.