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Building resilience in early adolescence through a universal school-based preventive program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

E. G. Cunningham ,
C. M. Brandon  and
E. Frydenberg
E. G. Cunningham*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
C. M. Brandon
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
E. Frydenberg
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
*
Everarda Cunningham, Department of Learning and Educational Development, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3052, Victoria Australia, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The development of effective coping resources, including positive thinking and an increased sense of self-efficacy, is related to enhancing resilience and healthy development in young people. A universal school-based prevention program that adapted techniques cognitive therapists use for depressed children, and directly based on the work of Seligman (1995), was implemented over a six-week period to whole-class groups by classroom teachers within their regular school curricula. Learning was facilitated through the use of stories, cartoons, hypothetical examples, practice and role-plays. Fifty-eight Year 5 and 6 students from four schools in regional and rural Victoria completed pre- and post-program questionnaires on self-efficacy, coping and attributional style. Following program participation, children reported significant improvements in optimistic thinking and self-efficacy, as well as a reduction in the use of the non-productive coping strategies of worry, wishful thinking, not coping, and reliance on friends. These promising results provide evidence for the feasibility of implementing a low-cost, non-intrusive program that addresses the emotional well-being of all young people in school settings. The longer-term success and viability of any universal preventive programs may ultimately depend upon the extent to which such programs can be integrated into the mainstream curriculum practices of schools.

Type
Research papers
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , November 1999 , pp. 15 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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