What is resilience and why is it important in adolescence?
Resilience is the ability to cope with stressful, difficult or adverse life events. Another definition is the ability of a person to adapt to difficult situations and persist in the face of adversity or as the ability to recover after a traumatic or stressful event.
There are factors that favor the development of resilience and others that hinder or even destroy it. French neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik explains it very clearly:
"When life hurts us, what do we do? Do we remain wounded for life and become victims or do we seek to live again in the best possible way?"
A learning path
Like all human capacities, the capacities and skills on which resilience depends have a genetic component, but this does not completely determine their development, because the environment also has a great influence. The person develops in the environment and throughout life and although there are ups and downs throughout this process, it can almost always be increased and strengthened.
Resilience goes far beyond the notion of dealing with a specific situation; resilience is a long, gradual, upward path.
Educating resilient children
Protective factor for mental health problems
Developing resilience in adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 18, is considered by many experts to be the antidote to the epidemic of mental health problems in our society today. It is known that not all adolescents who experience adverse situations or events develop mental health problems. To assess why some do and others do not, the key seems to lie in the set of socio-emotional skills that make up resilience .
These skills have been shown to be a protective factor against mental health problems, as they play a fundamental role in recovering from trauma and coping with stressful or adverse events. In addition, young people who are free of mental health disorders and problems are more likely to have better overall health throughout their lives. In short, resilience is a determining factor for psychological well-being and prevents or delays the onset of mental health problems, as well as the occurrence of relapses.
The importance in adolescence
Resilience, in addition to being a protective factor for mental health, is a determining factor for the entry and beginning of adolescence , at the age of 12; a key stage for preventing mental health problems, since we know that half of mental disorders begin before the age of 14. Therefore, it is considered highly necessary to take actions that contribute to improving the mental health of the young population , among which adolescents between 12 and 14 years old are a key group for taking preventive actions.
Adolescence is also an intense period of training in social relationships in general and, specifically, in affective-sexual relationships. For the latter, socioemotional learning is one of the key components to work on. It is crucial to focus attention on the adolescent population, since it is an evolutionary period in which people face multiple evolutionary challenges and in which skills that foster resilience can be the key to coping with both their day-to-day and less everyday adversities.
The family plays a crucial role in socio-emotional development and the prevention of psychological distress in adolescence. Similarly, educational centers can greatly promote the psychological well-being of their students. Therefore, it is key to promote actions so that families and teachers acquire tools on how to foster resilience in adolescence.
Teaching skills that foster resilience promotes the development of healthy brain architecture in an evolutionary period that is so sensitive to change due to the great neuroplasticity that characterizes it.
The importance of promoting resilience in adolescent students
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