Building resilience in young people

Mental health challenges can affect us at any stage of our lives however in early adolescence (10-14 years) there is a higher risk or, and rapid increase in, mental health difficulties.

To support prevention and early intervention, the ‘Resilience Rucksack’ initiative was developed by a research team at University of Reading, an idea inspired by Scotland’s baby box. It aimed to equip students transitioning from primary to secondary school with tools and items that research has identified as beneficial for adolescent’s mental health and wellbeing.

The initial phase of the project involved co-producing and co-designing wellbeing items/tools with young people and their relevant representatives (school teachers/staff, parents/carers) using a robust research evidence approach. Following the initial design and pilot stages, the team launched a series of Resilience Fairs in schools across Oxfordshire and Berkshire in which researchers and mental health professionals set up booths illustrating evidence-based approaches for building resilience and maintaining wellbeing. Each booth represented each of the central themes of this research, Sleep, Movement, Friendship, and Self-Compassion and contained wellbeing tools that young people were able to choose for their personal resilience rucksack.

Our ‘Sleep’ theme looks at how and why you can take steps during the day to sleep better at night. 

What does sleeping well mean?

• Feeling sleepy when it is time for bed and feeling awake and energised when it is time to get up
• Finding it easy to get to sleep at night and then sleeping through the night without waking up.
• All of these can be signs that you are getting enough sleep

Did you know sleeping well helps you to

• Focus and think clearly.
• Learn and remember better
• Have more energy to do more fun things in the day
• Feel better about yourself and others
• Be more resilient if you face challenges in the day

Find out more about the sleep-wake cycle, sleep steps and how good sleep can improve wellbeing and resilience.  

Movement means moving your body and being more active in your everyday life. If we introduce more movement into our everyday lives, this can have a positive effect on our wellbeing.

This is because movement can help our mind and body...:

• To think more clearly
• To feel better about ourselves and others
• To sleep better at night
• To have more energy during the day
• To connect with others

The Science

Moving your body more can release chemicals in your body, such as endorphins and dopamine. Endorphins: Make us feel good and less stressed Dopamine: Helps to motivate us and raise our energy.

What are friendships?

Friendships are a type of social support and building supportive social connections and relationships is a key ingredient to improve your wellbeing and resilience.

How can friendships help you?

• When you feel emotionally supported this helps you to be more resilient to any negative thoughts you have about yourself. This includes worrying less about what others think of you.
• Friendships can help you to develop your communication skills, your empathy towards yourself and others, your identity, and your sense of belonging.
• Friendships can even help you to be more active, through playing games with your friends and trying new things.
• Good friendships can help you to feel good and safe, valued, and respected.
• Friendships can give you someone to talk to if you want to share a happy moment, or if you feel sad or want someone to talk to.
• You can also help your friends too, which can improve wellbeing for both people.

This wellbeing tool has been co-designed by the young people in our workshops, who emphasised that when possible, it is important to be kind, friendly and supportive to those around you, as well as knowing you are supported. The idea was that each child could contribute by anonymously writing a message of friendship and support to other year 6 and year 7 pupils.

Pupils are tasked with writing their positive messages on leaves and then stuck these on the friendship tree poster. These messages are collected and made into a friendship tree poster. The children can read these messages gaining a sense that there are ‘people out there who care’ or ‘understand’ and facilitating a positive sense of community and support among their peers. 

We recommend recreating this exercise at your school with your class or year group. 

What is self-compassion?

Self-compassion is when you direct kindness and understanding towards yourself. This can be helpful when you come across challenges and you feel difficult emotions. Self-compassion could be accepting that these emotions are normal in response to the challenge and then being kind and gentle with yourself. You should care for yourself the way you care for others when they are hurt or upset.

Why is self-compassion important?

Self-compassion can help you to balance out your negative feelings with kindness and care. This helps you to be more resilient when you face challenges because you know that you can support yourself. This balance happens inside your body, when you activate your Soothe System.

If you would like to find out more about the Soothe System and the science behind self-compassion please download the self-compassion information sheet below.

You can write down many things in your journal but here are some ideas to get you started…

• Write kind words to yourself. It helps to imagine you are saying kind words to a friend, for example, ‘I was brave today because I had to stand on stage in drama and this makes me nervous’. You can write what you are proud of, that you were ‘brave’, and why this was a challenge, ‘standing on stage makes you nervous’. This helps you to see how you have overcome a challenge, building resilience.
• Write down three good things that went well that day and why these make you feel good. For example, ‘I finished my book today, and this made me feel proud because sometimes I find it hard to finish one book before I start my next book’
• Write down something that you are grateful for. For example, ‘it was sunny today, which meant I could take my dog for a long walk, and he could swim in the pond.’ 
• Write down one emotion that you felt that day and then write down something that happened during the day where you felt this emotion. For example, ‘Joy… when I went round to my friends house’. This can help you to make sense of why you are feeling some emotions. Although sometimes we don’t know why we feel certain emotions, and this is ok, too.