Promoting resilience in children and young people

There is an urgent need to cultivate resilience in children and ensure they can safely navigate adversity say researchers at a think tank addressing child development.

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Dr Felicia Low and Dr Seungyeon Kim from Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland are urging policymakers to back programmes that build resilience – starting in early childhood education centres through to high schools – to reach as many children as possible.

In a new paper, Promoting resilience in children and young people, the researchers say in 2022 and 2023, more than one in five (21.2%) of 15-24-year-olds experienced high levels of psychological distress.

Symptoms of depression among secondary students increased from 13% in 2012 to 23% in 2019, while the proportion of students meeting the criteria for positive wellbeing decreased from 76% to 69%.  

Dr Low and Dr Kim’s work – which is funded by the Wright Family Foundation – outlines how our young people can be better equipped to cope with the many pressures on them.

Key findings:

• The mental health of children and young people in Aotearoa New Zealand is deteriorating, with rangatahi Māori, rainbow youth, and young people living in poverty experiencing the highest burden.
• Promoting resilience in children and young people can help them adapt to a constantly changing world and is an important preventative approach to reducing the risk of mental distress later in life.
• Resilience can be cultivated through the development of executive functioning, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills, and through the nurturing of relationships, social identity, and a sense of belonging.
• Targeted, tailored, and culturally appropriate programmes that help develop the skills underlying resilience may be especially helpful for New Zealand youth.
• Parents, schools, communities, policymakers, and government have an important role and responsibility to promote resilience in children and young people to help them flourish.
  
  

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