‘Resiliency’ seems to be a bit of a buzz-word these days- many professionals and parents seem to notice that their children and teens just ‘aren’t resilient’ anymore, either relative to previous generations or the pre-Covid cohorts. Personally, I believe that there were problems simmering before the pandemic, but we now no longer have the choice to blindly ignore them. But the notion of ‘being resilient’ is inherent in our human capacity- people have historically coped with insurmountable challenges. What sits behind resiliency are some more scary concepts like self-doubt, anxiety, attachment systems and fear of discomfort. THESE are much more challenging to get our heads around, but the good news is that we as educators and parents can actually do something about it.

Let’s start by unpacking the roots of anxiety- whilst this title arrogantly professes to address ‘all’ anxiety, people are nuanced, and we need to have an understanding of what the young person’s experience of anxiety stems from. Asking open-ended but validating questions can offer a helpful starting point, such as: ‘what is your experience?’, ‘when does this seem to happen the most’, ‘where does it sit in your body’ and ‘what other thoughts and feelings do you have around this? Anxiety is the body’s internal alarm system, originating from early evolution that was a much needed ‘fight or flight’ system (Harvard Edu, 2024), but in modern society this looks a lot more complex.

Our early attachments determine our resilience later in life (Rutter, 1985). This is not to retroactively shame parents for disconnection in developmental years, as there are a whole host of aspects that build up a secure attachment system.

More often than not the anxiety is holding space for more challenging emotions, otherwise known as experiential avoidance (Hayes et al, 2016) or expressive suppression (Gross and Levenson, 1993) such as fear “what if I fail?”, shame “I am a failure” or even self-loathing “I don’t deserve to succeed”. The more severe the internal monologue, the more I would suggest the need for a trained professional- but if you are a teacher, parent or mentor to young people, where do we start when trying to help them sift through muck? It can feel really helpless to be met with such a low self-esteem when you have tremendous belief in their potential, but there are a few low-pressure things we can try that might go some way to building students up again, even in the face of the immense pressures of standardised testing, hierarchical schooling structures and complicated peer-dynamics.

Martin and Marsh coined the term ‘academic buoyancy’; different to the notion of ‘resilience’, the ability to keep going and ‘grin and bear it’, for me the ‘bouncing’ metaphor suggests more of a proactive engagement with challenges and transitions. They identify 5 predictors of successful responsiveness to academic challenge; I will address each in turn, and offer actionable strategies for supporting our young people.

1)        Self-efficacy- One’s conception of their own ability massively plays into their success in academia (Bandura, 1977). The main way we help learners feel confident in their ability is to give them opportunities to be successful, or what Bandura coins as ‘mastery experiences’. This could be with the help of a teacher/tutor who is clearly attuned to their needs and can offer alternative approaches, or could be to show model examples of other students work that reflects their own abilities. Many students believe that they are doing really poorly but are incredibly capable, so showing them their strengths and reminding them of their successes, whilst having honest conversations about what they need to do to improve, can help students more comfortably appraise their position. For a student who is really struggling with a subject, say low-literacy in English- focus on small goals and successes that may not be academic, and remind them that their self-worth is not determined by their success in this area.

2)        Control- We all want to feel in control of our lives, as this makes us feel safe.  Children/teens want autonomy- allowing for choices in teaching and learning can be really powerful in building learning confidence. As an English teacher, I would often offer a choice of starter activities, all with challenge embedded, to empower students to select the skills that they most wanted to work on. Active and meaningful discussion about the WHY behind learning, and engaging young people in the different approaches you may take can help them be mindful of the learning process (see the EEF’s guidance on metacognition for more insights here).

3)        Academic engagement- It would take a whole series of blogs to sufficiently deal with this one, as engagement is something that I have developed and curated different approaches to over the course of my teaching career. I don’t believe it is about being a dancing-monkey and offering everything with jazz hands, but is about developing the skill of engaging young people in interesting and meaningful thinking. For me, this is about debate, dialogue, exploration, research, mind-mapping, playfulness and seeking different roots through the learning. And then time- lots of time, for purposeful practice (yes, the hard work of reading and writing!). Our education system leaves many teens feeling that they are churned through and spat out at an intensive pace, and then we wonder why they might be feeling anxious. Taking the time to support them and focus on what they find most interesting and important can be incredibly powerful, and chunking the learning down to its most fundamental concepts. We need to remove the urgency and the feeling that they ‘need to know everything’ lest they fail the exam.

4)        Anxiety- This directly feeds on from the last point, so I’ll use this space to give a reminder about the value of having a sense of humour- and we shouldn’t try to fix things! Regulating the nervous system is number one with supporting an anxious young person, and you know your child/students best. Help bring them down from their catastrophising by being that cool, calm and collected presence alongside them. A bit of silliness and lightness in the interactions can work wonders at giving perspective, or physical proximity/warmth can support an activated attachment system. If you are a parent, this means lots of hugs (goes without saying), but as a teacher it may be a pat on the shoulder, or physically getting down to their level.

5)        Teacher-student relationships- This is an interesting one for me, and as with some of the previous concepts, there are no quick tricks to winning over students. But I think it’s all about connection. No learning or rational-thinking can take place when the young person is feeling either activated or disconnected, so find purposeful ways to build connection and shared knowledge/experiences with them, which will psychologically remind them that you are a safe and trustworthy person to lean on, and will model to them how they can ultimately have a healthier relationship with themselves (See concept of ‘social buffering’).

Hopefully from this exploration, you have at least some starting points for thinking about this topic. As with any of my blogs or writing, I will never try and solve or reduce down  complex areas like education and child-psychology , which are so painfully-but-beautifully nuanced and interpersonal. But hopefully this has given you more to think about, look into and opened up some conversations for moving through these dynamics.

References:

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. DOI:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191

Education Endowment Foundation (2018). Metacognition.   https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition.

Gross, J.J and Levenson, R.W. (1993). Expressive suppression: Physiology, self report and expressive behaviour. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Rutter, M. (1985). Resilience in the Face of Adversity: Protective Factors and Resistance to Psychiatric Disorder,” published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, and Kelly G. Wilson (2016). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): The process and Practice of Mindful Change. 2nd ed.