Interventions to build resilience among young people A literature review

Resilience Builder
Program (RBP), for
improving the social,
emotional and family
functioning of anxious
children in a private
clinical setting.
psychological disorder. Within this
focus, RBP addresses cognitive and
behavioural deficits. Aims to improve
social competence by teaching
children how to initiate and maintain
peer interactions, to engage in
reciprocity, to self-regulate their
emotions and behaviours, and to
become aware of how their
behaviour impacts others.
Children also learn resilience skills
such as proactive social problem
solving, developing and
acknowledging their own special
talents, and flexibility.
12-week (1 hour per week)
manualised group treatment
targeting social competence using
resilience skills (i.e. affect and
behaviour regulation,
flexibility/adaptability, social
problem-solving, proactive
orientation). Typical RBP session
structure: interactive didactic
component (30 min), free
play/behavioural rehearsal (20 min)
and relaxation/self-regulation (10
min)
anxiety disorder
behavioural
functioning
Internalising
problems
Externalising
problems
Resiliency
Emotional selfcontrol
Negative
emotionality
Anger control
Social Skills
Improvement
System- Rating
Scales (SSIS-RS;
Gresham and
Elliott, cited in
Watson et al.,
2014)
Family functioning
(problem solving,
communication,
roles, affective
responses,
affective
involvement,
behaviour control,
general
functioning)
problem behaviours and communication.
Teachers reported reduced internalising
symptoms, somatic problems, and socially
odd behaviours, as well as improvements
in communication skills
and resilience.
Moreover, children reported significant
improvement in their positive and
negative emotions, as well as their
emotional control.
Findings suggest preliminary support for
the effectiveness of RBP for improving
anxious children’s social, emotional and
family functioning.
Parental
psychopathology
Lester et al. (2012)
US & Japan
**Secondary
analysis
To evaluate the Families
OverComing Under
Stress (FOCUS) program,
which provides
One-arm pre-post design
FOCUS family resiliency training:
Is a family-centred, preventive
intervention, manualised, and
Baseline data
for 488 unique
families (742
parents, 873
Parent
psychological
distress
Family functioning
Family members reported high levels of
satisfaction with the program and positive
impact on parent–child indicators.
Psychological distress levels were
IV
Interventions to build resilience among young people: a literature review 62