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

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.