Promoting resilience and self-esteem in primary school aged children: An evaluation of a community-based program.

While several school-based mental health promotion programs have attempted to enhance resilience, coping skills and optimistic thinking (e.g., MindMatters, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000; Bright Ideas, Cunningham, Brandon, & Frydenberg, 1999), there has been little promotion conducted outside the school context, and particularly with preadolescents. 'Reach Rookys' is an innovative, community-based program for children aged 10 to 12 years developed by The Reach Foundation, a nonprofit Victorian youth organisation. The goal of the program is to foster resilient qualities in children that will 'buffer' them against potential problems in the future. To achieve this, Rookys run interactive 2-day programs and follow-up programs during the school holidays. This study is following children who participate in the program and attempting to identify whether there has been an increase in psychosocial markers of resilience. The aims of this research project therefore are: to assess changes in pre-program levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy, mood, coping and psychosocial adjustment (using well validated and reliable quantitative measures) at 3-month and 6-month follow-up, and controlling for the possible influence of intelligence and temperament; to investigate whether some children benefit from the program more than others do; and to identify these individual psychosocial characteristics which predict successful outcomes. It is hypothesised that: participants will show improvement in their confidence, self-esteem, mood, and in their approach to handling everyday situations and problems. Pre-program levels of psychosocial adjustment, as well as intelligence and temperament, will predict the degree of psychosocial improvement in response to the program. To date, baseline data have been gathered for 94 children participating in programs during each term break across 2002. Sample characteristics and preliminary findings will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]