Enhancing Resilience ~ Teens & Tweens
Whilst resilience is not necessarily a term our younger people might use, children as young as 3 and 4 are well capable of displaying signs of low resilience and low confidence. Many teens and tweens in today's world are now experiencing stress and anxiety responses frequently, if not on a daily basis.
Resilience is a word we use to describe a set of skills that enable us to confidently cope well in the face of stress and adversity, and also bounce back after experiencing a challenging or difficult experience, no matter how brief it was.
Building resilience helps teens and tweens not only manage and cope well with their current set of circumstances but also gives them the confidence that they can deal with similar situations more effectively when they happen in the future.
Resilience helps our teens & tweens to stay calm and strong when experiencing stress and anxiety, for example when they feel misjudged, mistreated, disrespected, misunderstood, abused, or bullied, etc. Resilience is something we get better and stronger using the more we persist and practice using it!
Low resilience in teens and tweens can be expressed as:
Emotional outbursts, increased irritability, intolerance & rebelliousness
Sleep disturbances including insomnia & nightmares
Withdrawal or avoidance from social situations & activities
Struggles with school; motivation, concentration & memory
Regression to earlier stages of development e.g., nocturnal enuresis, separation anxiety, nail biting
Building resilience also prevents our teens & tweens from becoming outwardly aggressive towards others which can be a major source of conflict in their relationships with family, peers, and teachers.
In addition, high resilience can prevent this negativity from being turned inwards toward themselves thereby reducing anxious thoughts and feelings, fear, eating problems, reduced self-confidence and self-esteem, depression, self-harming behaviours, avoidance, feeling physically unwell, suicidal ideation, isolation, loneliness, etc.
