Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance - U.S. Department of ...

Draft
to get into college and graduate successfully were not necessarily the most intellectually talented,
but the ones who developed grit and positive academic mindsets. At the same time, leaders in
schools with much more diverse student bodies had been coming to recognize that all students
benefit from an education that encourages students to strive, not fear failure, and persist, and that
persistence is more likely in learning environments that are intentionally designed to promote it.
Some school reform efforts have sought to restructure the organization and climate of schools to
provide students with a more supportive learning environment.
Penn Resilience Program (PRP)
Programs to Develop Resilience in Children and Adults
The Penn Resiliency Program (http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/prpsum.htm) is a group intervention designed to
teach upper elementary and middle school students to cope with challenging emotions and difficult situations.
Based in part on cognitive-behavioral theories of depression, PRP uses several evidence-based factors to
improve resilience, including self-awareness and identifying counterproductive thoughts. Students learn
assertiveness, self-regulation and how to challenge negative beliefs. PRP is typically delivered in 12 90-minute
lessons or in 18-24 60-minute lessons by trained leaders with expertise in psychology, education, or mental
health. Students learn resilience concepts in each lesson through skits, role plays, short stories, and cartoons
and are encouraged to apply these skills in their lives as part of their homework each week. Nineteen controlled
studies have evaluated the efficacy of PRP, and a meta-analysis of these studies demonstrated that PRP
participants had fewer symptoms of depression than participants in no-intervention control conditions for up to 24
months.
United States Army Master Resilience Trainer (MRT) Course
As described in Reivich, Seligman, & McBride (2011), the U.S. Army Master Resilience Trainer Course
(http://www.jackson.army.mil/sites/vu/pages/273) is a 10-day program designed to teach resilience skills to
noncommissioned officers (NCOs), who then will teach these skills to their soldiers. MRT focuses on preventing
post-traumatic stress syndrome and incorporates key elements from the PRP and from a parallel program called
APEX that addresses depression and anxiety in college students (Gillham, Jaycox, Reivich, Hollon, Freeman,
DeRubeis, & Seligman, 1991; Reivich, Shatté, & Gillham, 2003). The first eight days are organized into four
modules. Module 1 explores factors that contribute to resilience and introduces the core competencies of
resilience targeted by the program. Module 2 builds mental toughness by helping soldiers learn to distinguish
between activating events and the thoughts, emotions and consequences that follow. They learn patterns of
thinking that lead to adaptive outcomes and resilience and strategies for challenging counterproductive beliefs.
In Module 3, soldiers complete an online character strengths questionnaire (http://www.authentichappiness.org)
that rank orders and define strengths. They practice using individual and team strengths to meet goals and
overcome challenges. Module 4 focuses on strengthening relationships among soldiers and among soldiers and
their families through the application of constructive responding, praise, and communication style. The
sustainment component on Day 9 addresses the application of these skills in a military context, sustaining
resilience, and determining when an individual is struggling with resilience. During the enhancement component
on Day 10, soldiers learn to identify connections between thoughts, emotions, physiological states, and
performance; effective ways to create enthusiasm and optimism; how to articulate actionable plans to attain
goals; strategies for attention control in demanding situations; strategies for maintaining optimum energy; and
how to use mental imagery techniques to create or recreate successful experiences. Initial evaluations of the
program from NCOs have been positive.
59