Methods: a longitudinal cohort study was carried out. resilience was measured pre/post-pandemic with the cd-risc. mental health problems assessed were: major depressive episode (mde), generalized anxiety disorder (gad), suicidal thoughts and behaviors (stb), and posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd) symptoms. results: we found statistically significant differences between groups and resilience scores in mde [f (3;48.40) = 19.55], gad [f(3;19.63) = 6.45] and stb [f(3;111.74) = 31.94]. multivariable analyses showed individuals with very low resilience were at a 5-fold risk of incidence of mde and a 4- fold risk of stb. persistent group presented a 21-fold risk of mde and 54-fold risk of stb, respectively. no evidence of higher risk was found for gad. individuals with low resilience and exposed to covid-19 did not have a significantly higher risk. individuals with low resilience were at higher risk of ptsd in general population [ b (95%ci) = -3.25(-3.969 to – 2.54)], but not for individuals with covid-19. conclusions: in the general population, having low or very low resilience increases the risk of suffering mde, stb, and ptsd, but not gad during the covid-19 pandemic, but not in the population with covid-19. key messages: resilience was a buffer of mental health problems in general population, but not in those exposed to covid-19. those with low resilience were at 21-fold risk of mental health problems before and during the first year of pandemic