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Building resilience in children
and young people
Early Childhood Development (DEECD)
Associate Professor Helen Cahill, Sally Beadle,
Anne Farrelly, Ruth Forster and Dr. Kylie Smith
University of Melbourne
This literature review has been developed by the Youth Research Centre, Melbourne
The following people provided valuable feedback and advice on this document: Associate
Professor Erica Frydenberg, Liz Freeman, Desma Strong, Helen Butler, Dr Lisa McKay-
Contents
Acronyms ................................................................................................................................... 1
Glossary of terms ....................................................................................................................... 2
..................................................................................................................... 5
................................................................................................................................ 12
What is wellbeing? ..................................................................................................................... 13
What is resilience? ...................................................................................................................... 14
.................................................. 15
How can schools promote wellbeing and resilience? ................................................................ 16
Taking a strength-based approach .............................................................................................. 16
Taking a whole-school approach ................................................................................................. 21
...................... 21
..... 34
................ 36
............................. 37
................................... 38
........................... 40
................................................................................................................... 41
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 42
............................................................................................................................................ 43
References .................................................................................................................................. 45
1
Acronyms
ABS
ACARA
CASEL
DEECD
MCEETYA
MGSE
SEL
YRC Youth Research Centre
2
Glossary of terms
Bullying A form of aggressive behaviour in which there is an imbalance of power
targeted individual (Rigby & Smith, 2011).
Coping
(Frydenberg, 2010).
Cyber bullying Covert bullying used primarily by young people to harm others using
technology such as: social networking sites, other chat-rooms, mobile
phones, websites and web-cameras (Cross et al., 2009).
Health
physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease
Help-seeking
and interpersonal skills (Rickwood, Deane, Coralie, & Ciarrochi, 2005).
Mental health
3
management
approaches
student behaviour than on punishment for student misbehaviour.
Racism
Resilience
School
connectedness
School connectedness means feeling close to, a part of, and happy at
feeling safe at school (Libbey, 2004). Connectedness to school can include
connectedness to peers and to school work (Bond et al., 2007).
learning (SEL)
making friends, coping, being resilient and recognising and managing their
Strengths-based
approach
Grados, 2005).
4
Student engagement Student engagement consists of 1) Behavioural engagement, shown through
formulate their own learning goals, and believe in the importance of their
academic achievements (van Uden, Ritzen, & Pieters, 2014).
physical challenge (Dodge, Daly, Huyton, & Sanders, 2012).
approach
school culture. A whole-school approach involves all areas of the school –
social environment of the school.
5
Schools have the capacity to promote the resilience of children and young people. Resilience is the
resilience in children and young people include social competence, a sense of agency or responsibility,
generate a sense of connectedness to teachers, peers, and the academic goals of the school.
and young people
Building Resilience supports schools to foster the learning, resilience and wellbeing of children
domains of partnership, leadership, teaching, support, and referral.
The Building Resilience online portal ( ) assists schools to easily
•
detailed through the Building Resilience literature review).
• A wide range of evidence-based materials and resources developed both by the Department
•
6
Building Resilience
• Partner with the school community, including families and local and community services
•
• Teach
• Support
• Refer those in need to appropriate services
7
Partner
young people who feel cared for by people at their school and who are connected to the academic
Lead
Teach
and social management, which are the building blocks of resilience. Schools also build resilience
Support
8
Refer
health support and in linking them and their families to the appropriate service provider. Available
services and how to inform parents that they believe referral is warranted.
Building Resilience online ( ) assists schools to easily access
•
detailed through the Building Resilience literature review).
• A wide range of evidence-based materials and resources developed both by the Department
•
The Building Resilience literature review
This literature review provides a summary of the current evidence base available to inform schools
9
Why focus on resilience?
2009).
How can schools promote resilience?
There are many strategies that schools can use to enhance resilience. These include whole-school
decision-making.
al., 2005). Children and young people who feel cared for by people at their school and feel connected
outcomes. Children and young people with a higher level of school connectedness are less likely to
hand, the evidence shows that low school connectedness is associated with higher risks of substance
or mental health problems, and higher levels of school dropout (Bond et al., 2007).
(Catalano et al., 2004).
10
classroom management. This research shows that teacher interpersonal behavior has a powerful
make?
teach a range of skills, including those necessary for self-awareness, self-management, social
Resilience model in Victoria?
A suite of SEL curriculum materials has been developed for use with children and young people from
help-seeking.
11
designed to support and guide teachers in their use of the SEL curriculum. These learning materials
12
and social capability assists students to become successful learners, helping to improve their academic
Curriculum emphasises the need for students to develop their personal and social capability as they
made through use of whole-school approaches, which include provision of well-designed and well-
13
What is wellbeing?
Dodge et al. (2012) use the analogy of a see-saw to capture the dynamic nature of wellbeing. They
(Dodge et al., 2012, p.
231).
their overall sense of wellbeing. A range of factors were perceived to be important, including their:
• Physical health
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
& Bourke, 2007).
14
illness in young Australians (data for children is harder to
with the skills to become resilient and prevent mental illness.
What is resilience?
the capacity to cope, learn and thrive in the face of change,
challenge or adversity. Some describe it as the ability to
the ongoing and dynamic process of coping (Benard 1996,
Everyone encounters challenge, and everyone has a degree of
resilience, however some children and young people are more
resilient than others. Those with higher resiliency are more
or psychological health problems (Benard 2004).
•
before the age of 25 (Kessler et al., 2007)
•
burden of disease in the 15–25 years age
•
aged 15 -19 met the criteria for having a
probable serious mental illness (Mission
Australia, 2014)
• Females were almost twice as likely
as males to meet criteria for having a
(Mission Australia, 2014)
•
respondents have higher rates of mental
Australia, 2014)
•
higher for young people with a disability
Australia, 2014)
•
• Mental health problems in early
childhood are associated with a range of
poor immediate and future outcomes
• Given the rapid brain development that
and where necessary, intervene early
before problems become entrenched
15
wellbeing & resilience?
family, school and community environments.
16
substance use.
resilience:
• students who can interact well with others.
• students who can think through how to manage their challenges deal
• students who have a sense of independence, responsibility
challenges.
•
How can schools promote wellbeing &
resilience?
school environments that promote wellbeing and resiliency for all students.
focus on repairing problem behaviours) to strengths-based approaches that aim to take advantage
of children and young people (Alvord & Grados, 2005).
17
level (Bond et al., 2001; Catalano et al., 2004; Commonwealth of Australia, 2000; Masten, 2009;
• Prenatal brain damage
• Prematurity
•
•
• Physical and intellectual disability
• Poor health in infancy
•
• Low intelligence
•
• Chronic illness
• Poor social skills
• Low self-esteem
•
•
• Easy temperament
•
•
• Above-average intelligence
• School achievement
• Problem-solving skills
•
• Social competence
• Social skills
• Good coping style
•
• Moral beliefs
•
•
Fam
ily
•
• Parental unemployment
• Homelessness
• Refugee status
• Death of family member
•
disability
• Divorce and family break up
•
•
•
•
• Family harmony
• Secure and stable family
• More than two years between siblings
• Responsibility within family
•
adult
• Strong family norms and morality
Sch
oo
l
• Bullying
•
•
•
• Member of a deviant peer group
• School failure
• Truancy or dropout
•
•
• Racism
• Homophobia
•
•
•
•
•
• School norms against violence
• Engagement in learning
•
•
•
Co
mm
un
ity • Socioeconomic disadvantage
•
•
•
•
• Lack of support services
• Sense of connectedness
•
•
•
pride
• Access to support services
• Cultural norms against violence
18
models that have dominated the history of psychology, where
to focus on what it is that helps people to thrive (Seligman
favours using strengths-based approaches.
environments that recognise all of these features.
• Students are more
skills and personal achievement skills.
•
Issues raised by children about their
•
for children and their families
•
some key issues related to this
their families:
Things that can be stressful:
» Finding their way around large
school buildings
» Finding it hard to learn and follow
the school rules
» Coping with longer days
»
for their own care associated with
»
school
Things that can be helpful
» Making and keeping friends eases
»
leads to a sense of wellbeing and
» Free play programs
»
themselves feel ready for school
Childhood, 2008)
19
•
school connectedness.
•
develop them at school.
•
meaning (tasks that have impact on others beyond themselves) and purpose (pursue worthwhile
goals) enhances wellbeing and achievement.
2008).
Early sex Substance
use
Depression
community
Having spiritual beliefs
Engaging in other risky behaviours
= risk factor
20
associated with a range of physical health and mental health outcomes. Children and young
people with a higher level of school connectedness are less likely to abuse substances, engage
combined with high peer connectedness is associated with higher risks of substance or mental
health problems, and those students with both low school and low peer connectedness are
at an elevated risk of substance and mental health problems and are also more likely to leave
school early (Bond et al., 2007).
There are many strategies that schools can use to increase school connectedness. These
learning environment through use of classroom management and teaching methods,
students and involving students and families in decision making (Centers for Disease Control
high school years.
21
Rowling, & Carson, 2000).
features of a whole-school approach are summarised in Table 3.
Key features of a whole-school approach to
include:
•
•
•
•
•
22
with enhanced student resilience, engagement and wellbeing
•
• Fair behaviour management system & tolerant disciplinary policies
•
•
•
• Strategies to engage parents
• Smaller school size
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
learning or wellbeing
Pedagogical features
• Relevant and well-taught curriculum
•
and coping skills
• Use of data to inform teaching
•
•
•
•
•
broader school environment
•
•
23
academic outcomes. These outcomes were evident in the short-term (pre-school), medium-term
(primary school), and long-term (high school). The results also indicated that the programs that
2003).
Payton et al. (2008) reviewed 180 school-based studies involving 277,977 students aged from
strategy involved classroom-based programming, which usually took the form of a curriculum or set
Curriculum,
teaching &
learning
School
ethos &
environment
Partnerships
& services
24
indicated strong and consistent support for the value of SEL
programs.
programs with Grade Two to Grade Five children. The SEL
programs were based on the approach,
as well as enhancing the capacity of teachers to be able to
years (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2014).
increased student engagement and achievement and that
student engagement and achievement (Roorda et al., 2011).
learning outcomes has also been demonstrated for students
with improved student engagement in school. They found
regardless of student level of risk (Anderson, Christenson,
Sinclair, & Lehr, 2004).
Key issues of concern that children raise
and sex
Age 5-9
Males
1. Family
2. Bullying
3.
groups
4.
wellbeing
5. Child abuse
1. Family
2. Bullying
3.
wellbeing
4. Child abuse
5.
Age 10-14
1. Mental health
concerns
2. Family
3.
wellbeing
4. Suicide-related
concerns
5.
partner
1. Family
2. Bullying
3.
wellbeing
4. Child abuse
5.
Age 15-19
1. Mental health
concerns
2.
partner
3.
wellbeing
4. Suicide-related
concerns
5. Family
1. Mental health
concerns
2.
partner
3.
wellbeing
4.
5. Family
(BoysTown, 2013)
25
approach of the classroom teachers and the broader school community. This research foregrounds
Some research studies have asked students themselves what it is that teachers do to help build their
of teacher behaviours were highly associated with increased student engagement:
1.
2.
2014, p. 29).
• listening to students
•
•
•
26
to use the teacher as a source of help for both schoolwork
& Smith, 2004). The teacher behaviours that were most highly
teacher is someone who:
• says hello to me
• talks to me
•
•
pedagogical in nature and include when the teacher is
someone who:
•
•
•
• helps me learn from my mistakes
•
Useful links
• treat you with respect
• smile and say hello
• take an interest in you
•
•
you anymore
•
• encourage you
•
• let you make mistakes
• know your name
• talk to everyone
• trust you
• like you
•
•
• have fun
A whole school approach to working towards
health priority areas
27
Studies show that students with higher levels of engagement are more likely to achieve well at school,
following three types of engagement (p. 22):
•
applied to tasks
•
• whereby students are able to formulate their own learning goals, and
believe in the importance of their academic achievements (see also Fredricks, Blumenfeld, &
Paris, 2004)
(van Uden et al., 2014). A number of other studies have shown that teacher interpersonal behaviour
and a degree of autonomy or choice in learning (van Uden et al., 2014).
28
2009).
found the following program elements to be associated with a
•
•
•
• Firm disciplinary methods
•
Their research also sheds light on what does not work in
formal engagement of peers in tackling bullying (e.g. peer
A number of research reviews highlight the importance of a
manage all forms of bullying behaviours in schools and the
need to strengthen capacity supports to enable schools to
•
• teacher training
• improved playground supervision
• disciplinary methods
Guidance on children and young people’s
for adults working with children and youth
young healthy minds
Useful links
• yell
• blame you when it was someone else
• refuse to believe you
• talk on and on
•
•
• have favorites
• hold up your mistakes
• embarrass you in front of the class
• put you down
• tease you
• compare you to your brothers or sisters
29
•
• school assemblies
•
• classroom rules and classroom management
•
•
•
• school community key understandings and competencies
•
• school–family–community partnerships
There is strong evidence that parental involvement in schooling and in student learning makes a
more likely to:
• enrol in higher-level programs
•
•
•
30
become a bully stopper, reducing incidences
of bullying in Victorian schools
Useful links
•
at least once during the last term at
school
•
prevalent of all bullying behaviours
• Cyberbullying happens to about one
in 10 Australian young people every
the following strategies that schools can use:
• Create a welcoming environment that fosters family-
language
•
that lead to mistrust or that lead to parents thinking that
schools are not interested in their involvement or input
• Create structures - policy, procedures, processes, and
relevant resources - that encourage family involvement, as
Hoover-Dempsey et al. (2005) review the evidence around
that schools need to not only increase their capacity for
welcoming school environment and establishing trust with the
The term parental engagement has been proposed as a
useful replacement for the term parental involvement as it
Goodall (2013) mounts an evidence-based argument to
demonstrate that parental engagement with learning in the
and not simply how to increase direct parental contact with
schools.
learning
learning
31
a decline in parental engagement (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005). The decline in involvement may
technologies to enhance parental engagement. Methods such as SMS messaging to mobile phones,
and use of the internet can help to strengthen links between school and home.
engagement, Goodall (2013) highlights that it is not ‘who the parents are (in terms of their own
•
•
songs or doing artwork
• Beginning engagement with learning early – beginning engagement in learning environments
• Staying engaged throughout school – parental engagement is important throughout the schooling
especially important
•
•
direct contact with the school.
32
Useful links
Children involved in bullying are at risk of
a variety of mental health problems. Drake
• Those who are bulliers were over four
vandalise, truant, carry a weapon, get
in trouble with the police, date earlier
partners
•
•
school outcomes, fostering shared ownership, commitment
and leadership. By working together, schools, families and
deployment of resources.
of children and young people aged 4-17 years (Sawyer et al.,
that schools are aware of appropriate referral pathways for
students. Help-seeking studies have found that students are
reluctant to seek help from professional sources because
this means engaging with a person who is a stranger about
their most personal problems. However, teachers can have a
suicide is much more successful when help is sought from
professional sources (Rickwood et al., 2005).
However, strong school-agency links are not always in place.
many were concerned that they lacked the knowledge and
skills to respond appropriately to mental health problems
(Mazzar & Rickwood, 2013). Teachers were worried about
within a well-coordinated pastoral care system, which will
with families and teh broader school
community
33
involved in the response, so that teachers are aware of where their role ‘begins and ends within this
Similar research in the UK found that primary teachers were unaware of appropriate referral pathways
the UK with school nurses found that while they recognised mental health to be an important issue
specialists. The researchers concluded that school nurses should have specialist training to assist
them to have well-established networks with specialist mental health teams so that they could refer
34
An update on the
evidence-base
informing Social and
teach coping and problem-solving skills. SEL involves the
to understand, manage and communicate about their own
and skills are dynamic and inter-related and work to underpin
competencies:
• Self-awareness
• Self-management
• Social awareness
•
• Responsible decision-making
• Young people are more likely to use
informal than formal sources of help,
even with serious problems such as
2005).
• Research suggests that young people
are reluctant to seek help from
Rickwood et al., 2005). Young people
are most confortable seeking help
from friends and the internet are the
Australia, 2014).
• Students are more likely to seek help
from those teachers they can trust,
35
•
•
• Empathy building
•
• Advocacy skills
•
•
•
or bring about change
• Skills for managing feelings
• Skills for managing stress
36
curricula and improved
wellbeing and academic
outcomes
et al., 2008). A meta-analysis of 213 school-based, whole-
270,000 students in both primary and secondary schools
found that compared to controls, students involved in school-
performance (Durlak et al., 2011).
problem-solving skills, improved mental health (CASEL, 2013).
meta-analysis of over 200 primary and secondary social and
– enable students to persist in the face of challenge, set higher
et al., 2011).
Useful links
• Young people are more likely to use
informal than formal sources of help,
even with serious problems such as
2005).
• Encouraging and fostering help-seeking
behaviours through school-based
programs is one way to improve their
mental health and wellbeing (Rickwood
et al., 2005).
• Research suggests that young people
are reluctant to seek help from
Rickwood et al., 2005).
• Students are more likely to seek help
from those teachers they can trust,
2011).
37
health and personal development curriculum that incorporates a focus on a range of social, physical
accompanied by robust teacher professional development and school-wide support (including an
behaviour and academic performance than those that employed only a few.
2014).
used to enhance social connectedness and teach pro-social SEL skills that are generalisable to real-
38
programs
pedagogical features of SEL programs. Successful SEL programs
to think about the challenges that they may encounter in
(Durlak et al., 2011) programs as well as other health and
& Rombouts, 2008).
learning tasks that are dialogic in nature and involve student-
to learn and to work with other peers, providing important by-
• Address a broad range of risk and
•
teaching strategies
• Engage students in problem-solving
• Assist students to relate their learning
•
development of healthy societal norms
• Are delivered in a longitudinal fashion
• Are implemented early, before the
•
• Are age-appropriate and culturally
• Are integrated into broad and on-going
health and wellbeing curriculum
•
general life-skills
•
•
•
• Teach self-calming strategies
39
social support or stress levels in students aged 13-15 years. They found that in classes where group
the other hand, increasing the amount of independent work increased stress in students. Therefore,
research suggests that when teachers are provided with SEL or other health-related curricula which
40
What sort of training, support
and resources do teachers need
and skills using these methods, it is important to consider
the support and resources that teachers need to implement
both (e.g. teacher personality) and
sample of teachers, they found that teacher burnout was
program implementers deliver the program as intended by
(Ransford et al., 2009).
the area of SEL program delivery should ideally involve teachers
working through a curriculum and teaching each other in small
In summary, teachers will be more
• Understand and support the
to modify materials appropriately
maintaining the philosophical and
pedagogical integrity of the program
• Have received professional training
that includes an emphasis on how to
•
• Employ sound class management
strategies - so the class engages
material
41
used. Teachers can work with colleagues to address apprehensions and possible problems before
as well as providing training support to teachers, it is important to help teachers understand the
personal development as a result of teaching the program. Teachers also reported an improvement
Skoog, & Sandell, 2013).
teacher wellbeing.
42
Conclusion
it is part of a broader health and personal development curriculum that incorporates a focus on a
promote student wellbeing.
that schools have well-established processes through which to refer students needing help from
43
and schools
A whole-school approach to working towards key health priority areas, which was informed by the
people
The Victorian System of Care Referral Matrix
children and young people to mental health services
working with children and youth to help them support the development of young healthy minds
44
broader community
working with children and youth to help them support the development of young healthy minds
45
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