Development and aplication of an intervention program to foster resilience in students

• Grant number: 19/08921-4
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): October 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal researcher: Elizeu Coutinho de Macedo
• Grantee: Tatiana Matheus Pinto
• Home Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Resilience can be defined as the ability to recover or face adversities, favoring adequate and adapted development. It is seen as a dynamic process that depends on the cumulative effects of risk factors, which promote greater maladaptation, and protective factors, which promote greater adaptation. Interventions that aim to strengthen protective factors and foster resilience have been developed over the years and present good results. However, it is still possible to verify a shortage of intervention studies conducted at the national level, which would be relevant considering the social and economic vulnerability under which a large numbers of children and adolescents are exposed daily. Thus, the main objectives of this study are: (1) to develop an interventive resilience program that promotes the following factors associated with resilience: self-efficacy and active coping, social support network and communication skills, cognitive flexibility and optimism; and (2) to apply the program and to evaluate its effect on the levels of resilience, quality of life and depressive symptomatology in students of the last year os Elementary School. After the evaluation of the program suitability by specialists in the subject, it will be implemented in a public school, where participants will be randomly assigned into Control Group and Intervention Group. The program will have a total of 15 sessions, in which each session will last 30 minutes and two sessions per week will take place. In the pre- and post-intervention moments scales will be used to assess the levels of resilience, quality of life and depression of both groups, in order to verify if the interventions had an effect on such variables. Three months after the end of the interventions it will be also conducted a follow-up to analyze if the results have remained over time. (AU)