As Canada Research Chair in Population Health Data Science, Meng studies mental health using population data and an approach that considers the whole course of people’s lives. Her research investigates how our experiences and circumstances accumulate over time, influencing both mental and physical health.
This perspective encourages us to look beyond resilience as a personality trait only certain people can possess, and consider the broader factors that shape how people handle adversity. It invites us to consider the experiences, resources and support systems that can help someone adapt and move forward. For students navigating new academic, social and personal challenges, these influences can play an important role in shaping their well-being.
There’s no single path to mental health
A person’s mental health is shaped by far more than what’s happening in the present moment. Past experiences, relationships and environments can leave lasting effects on mental health that accumulate over time. Sometimes, these can increase people’s vulnerability to ill mental health, and sometimes, they can strengthen people’s resilience.
Meng’s research explores how these factors interact across the life course. Her work on early-life adversity, for example, has examined links between childhood maltreatment and later mental health outcomes while also highlighting the protective role that social support and coping strategies can play. The findings verify how these adversities undermine people’s health, but they also show how experiences interact with individual, social and environmental factors throughout life. This suggests potential areas to take action.
The influences that matter most can also change over time, from relationships with parents and caregivers to friendships and school environments, and later, workplace relationships, working conditions and professional demands.
From Meng’s life-course studies, the transition to university is an important developmental period. New relationships, changing support networks and unfamiliar environments can all affect how students experience and respond to stress.
“Mental health and well-being are constantly shaped by a cumulative interaction of individual, societal and structural factors over time.”
Xiangfei Meng
— Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
Mental and physical health influence each other
Stress doesn’t only affect how we feel. It can also influence physical health, sometimes in ways that become apparent only years later.
Using stress theory and a life-course approach, Meng’s team examines how experiences throughout our lives impact both mental and physical health. For instance, depression and anxiety can occur alongside cardiovascular conditions, and physical illnesses can affect mental well-being. Rather than looking at one condition in isolation, Meng studies how these connections unfold over time and how they influence overall health and quality of life.
Looking at these interplays over time provides a more integrated understanding of health, one that considers symptoms along with experiences, relationships and environments surrounding them. It also offers a different way to think about resilience: not as a fixed personality trait but as a capacity that’s been shaped by our resources, relationships and circumstances.
Resilience isn’t something we build alone
Meng says adaptive coping strategies can help people navigate difficult circumstances. For instance, handling an overwhelming problem by focusing on what needs to be addressed right away, not trying to solve everything at once, can make it much easier to manage. Taking a moment to pause, reassess and adjust expectations can also reduce the pressure that often accompanies periods of change.
Adaptive coping doesn’t mean handling challenges by yourself. Transitions such as starting university or moving away from home can bring unfamiliar trials, including homesickness, language barriers and difficulty building new friendships. During these adjustment periods, maintaining existing relationships while gradually creating new connections can provide an important sense of stability and belonging.
Students can access peer support, support groups, short-term psychotherapy and other services through the uOttawa Student Health and Wellness Centre. Support can also come from everyday interactions with professors, staff, classmates and friends. They help create environments where people feel comfortable asking questions, expressing concerns and accessing resources.
For Meng, resilience isn’t about avoiding stress, persevering alone or always having the right answer. Mental health is shaped by a complex combination of biological, psychological and social factors, some of which lie beyond our control. Rather than viewing resilience as a fixed trait, she encourages people to see it as an ongoing process of adaptation, one that involves adjusting to changing circumstances, using available support and meeting challenges with flexibility and self-compassion.