Evaluating the effectiveness of a resilience program for children and young people in a private Australian psychology clinic

Research into intervention programs that aim to enhance resilience in young people is continually increasing. Evidence suggests that early intervention programs are important in assisting children to overcome difficult circumstances and prevent the development of mental health problems. There are a number of international resilience-based group programs, however few exist within Australia. Two programs that are currently being used within a private clinic in Australia are the Linked-Up (13-16 year-olds) and Connect-3 (8-12 year-olds) programs, which are based on the Resilience Doughnut model. The current study assessed the effectiveness of the two programs by taking pre and post measures of resilience and adversities. Participants were children and adolescents aged between 8-17 years. There were 70 participants in total, 40 males (57%) and 30 females (43%). There were 48 participants in the Connect-3 group and 22 participants in the Linked-Up group. Results show that the Connect-3 program built personal competency and reduced total difficulties within a non-clinical population. This supports previous research, which suggests that programs are more effective when implemented with primary school aged students, rather than high school students. Future research should aim to explore the effectiveness of the resilience programs within clinical populations or with young people who have increased risk of adversity. Future research should also consider how resilience could be enhanced in older-adolescent populations.