Teach resilience to help maintain good mental health

Building resilience starts from day one, and the skills can be learned by all children, including the most sensitive, new research has found.

Parents and professionals who work with children can help kids develop resilience by creating safe challenges, encouraging supportive relationships and teaching them to think positively, according to new findings from beyondblue.

The research has been used to develop everyday strategies that can be applied in kindergartens, schools and at home to foster resilience in all children.

To coincide with the start of the 2018 school year, beyondblue has launched web-based tips for parents and a new practice guide for professionals called Building Resilience in Children aged 0-12.

Beyondblue chief executive officer Georgie Harman said most of the existing research about resilience seemed to focus on developing this skill during adolescence rather than the early years or through primary school.

“We wanted to fill this gap. We know that half of all lifetime mental health issues emerge by the age of 14 and experts agree that increasing resilience among children aged 0–12 could potentially prevent mental health issues during childhood and later in life,” Georgie said.

Strategies found to help develop resilience in children include:

• Talking about feelings – encouraging children to discuss their feelings can help them better understand and regulate themselves.
• Supporting independence – simple challenges can help them develop strategies to cope when they feel uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid to remove the training wheels and let them ride.
• Building closeness with family and friends – knowing they are loved helps build self-esteem.
• Promoting healthy thinking habits – positive thinking can be learned and used to overcome routine mental obstacles.

The strategies are based on a 12-month research project lead by the Parenting Research Centre and Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.

The Building Resilience in Children aged 0-12 guide contains specific phrases and scenarios professionals can apply to help build resilience in their students. It can be downloaded free of charge from the beyondblue website at beyondblue.org.au/resilience-guide.

For parents, beyondblue has added simple, practical tips to its Healthy Families website at healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/resilience.