What is resilience?
Resilience is a personality trait commonly referred to as the ability to ‘bounce back’ in the face of adversity, and has become an important component in the theory of wellbeing.
Why is resilience so important for healthy functioning and early intervention?
Resilience skills can be developed by enhancing 3 core mechanisms: Sense of Mastery – a young person’s own feeling of competence or self-efficacy, Sense of Relatedness – a young person’s sense of their own ability to engage in positive relationships, and Emotional Reactivity – the speed and intensity of a young person’s negative emotional responses.
Having these skills can prevent young people from avoiding difficult situations out of fear that they cannot cope. Such avoidance limits the chances to develop their emotional and social skills, therefore slowing development of the resilience required for healthy functioning.
What can teachers do to improve and support resilience of the young people they support?
A core component of resilience is emotional regulation. Talk to the class about how it is normal for our emotions to change over the day as we experience different stresses.
