The Resilient Youth Program: a promising skills-based online program for resiliency and stress management.

Background: Prevention programs that target resilience may help youth address mental health difficulties and promote well-being during public health crises. Aims: To examine the preliminary efficacy of the Resilient Youth Program (RYP). Method: The RYP was delivered remotely from a US academic medical centre to youth in the community via a naturalistic pilot study. Data from 66 youth (ages 6–18, M age = 11.65, SD = 3.02) and their parents were collected via quality assurance procedures (May 2020 to March 2021). Pre/post-intervention child/parent-reported psychological and stress symptoms as well as well-being measures were compared via Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Child/parent-reported skills use data were collected. Results: Among child-reported outcomes, there were significant decreases in physical stress (p =.03), anxiety (p =.004), depressive symptoms (p <.001) and anger (p =.002), as well as increased life satisfaction (p =.02). There were no significant differences in child-reported psychological stress (p =.06) or positive affect (p =.09). Among parent-reported child outcomes, there were significant decreases in psychological (p <.001) and physical stress (p =.03), anxiety (p <.001), depressive symptoms (p <.001), and anger (p <.002) as well as increased positive affect (p <.001) and life satisfaction (p <.001). Effect sizes ranged from small to medium; 77% of youth (73% of parents) reported using RYP skills. Age and gender were not associated with outcome change. Conclusions: The RYP may help reduce psychological/stress symptoms and increase well-being among youth; further research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]