There is a global crisis in the mental health of young people. In the UK, as many as one in eight young people suffer from a diagnosable mental illness, with worrying increases in self-harming, depression and anxiety among teenage girls.
Resilience is the ability to remain mentally healthy or to quickly regain mental health in the face of stress. Working with children, knowing how to build strong emotional foundations and how to maintain good mental health is crucially important.
Supporting factors of boosting resilience:
- Societal values, relationships with people, self-esteem.
- Social support from family, friends, neighbours and even pets.
- Positive interactions with people you’re close to resulting in positive experiences. To recall these positive memories also improves resilience.
- School community: buddy systems, peer support networks, schoolwide processes.
- Skills that can be learned to cope better with stress: how to regulate emotions, solve problems, recognise triggering situations.
- Journaling helps people to focus on what is going well and distracts them from what is not. Continue to do things you enjoy instead of focusing only on the source of stress.
And the result? Despite deprivation, adverse communities or any external factors that might lead to depression, schools that promote strong social relationships and teach practical coping skills will have more resilient pupils who are able to learn more effectively.