What is most notable about the top three attributes that contribute to resilience are within the domain of Relationship to Others. As Ungar and Theron (2019) point out, having access to resources is a primary factor in being able to manage through adversity. By adopting a collaborative, helping attitude, adolescents and college students are more likely to thrive.
Implications for Coaching
In an unpublished doctoral dissertation, Lindgren (2011) describes what she calls the core methods of youth coaching. These core methods include: a) strengthening self, b) increasing skills, c) supporting education, d) including parents, e) accessing resources, and f) providing both individual and group coaching. She states that while all of these methods are not necessary in all youth coaching, most of these methods are used in each coaching engagement.
By utilizing the Youth Resilience Assessment, the client has an opportunity to increase self-awareness, thus strengthening the self. With increased self-awareness, the client can create more realistic and attainable goals. Knowing which attributes are their client’s strengths, the coach can craft powerful questions to help the client build toward their goals and their future.
The Youth Resilience Assessment can help to identify the skills the client wants to work on. For example, since social connection is a key attribute in overall resilience, goals may be targeted toward strengthening this attribute. The following ways to focus on building social connection were enumerated by Avenson (2020):
- Maintain contact with existing friends and reconnect with your old friends. Make an effort to carve out time to be with the people you care about.
- Remember that it’s not the quantity of social relationships but the quality that really matters.
- If you use social media, use it as a way station; use Facebook so that you can meet up somewhere. If it’s used as a destination, as a place to withdraw socially and interact as a non-authentic self, it can deepen your sense of loneliness and isolation.
- Create a setting where people can let their guards down and safely confide in each other. Practice speaking about your feelings with authenticity and listening to others non-judgmentally and with empathy and compassion.
- One of the best ways to forge and maintain friendships is through built-in regularity
