Promoting Mental Health in New Zealand: Building Resilience in Teenage Children

Abstract

There has been concerns about the increasing incidence of youth depression and anxiety, with school teachers seeking out ways to better equip youth with skills to help them deal with daily life. A resilience training programme for youth was implemented in one region of New Zealand. It aimed to enhance resilience through the instruction of problem-focused cognitive strategies, managing stressful situations, and making difficult conversations easier. This study was then evaluated to find out what was important in implementing such a training programme. A composite questionnaire consisting of resilience measure questions taken from the State Trait Assessment of Resilience Scale (STARS) and Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM)-12 questionnaires, along with resilience knowledge recall questions, was administered at the commencement and completion of the programme. Seven schools completed the survey. The implementation of the training programme improved the overall resilience and knowledge scores of the students. There was a significant increase in both the STARS Trait and CYRM-12 resilience scores and the resilience knowledge recall scores. However, an overall decrease in the mean STARS State (right now) resilience score could reflect increasing stress as the school year progresses. By empowering children to be more resilient, the incidence of clinically identified mental health maladaptation in adulthood may be minimised, and therefore supports better utilisation of health care resources.