Abstract
Being resilient and hopeful in the face of adversity can promote health and academic outcomes. We sought to determine whether religiosity and family functioning pre-pandemic predicted resilience and hope during the pandemic in a sample of 105 African American and Latinx college students with asthma (Mage = 19.09 years, SD = 1.01). Participants completed an online survey prior to the pandemic and one during the pandemic. In simple regressions, controlling for age, race/ethnicity, gender, and asthma control, greater religious commitment, better family functioning, and less COVID-19 impact were associated with higher resilience scores. Only greater religious commitment was associated with higher hope scores. In a hierarchical regression predicting resilience from all variables, religiosity and family functioning were associated with resilience above and beyond COVID-19 impact and covariates. Findings highlight the importance of family functioning and religiosity—two cultural factors that are salient in African American and Latinx communities—in resiliency and hope.