What is resilience and why does it matter?

When we talk about resilience we often hear words like 'bounce back', 'be strong' or 'cope with difficult situations'. But resilience is much more than simply getting through something difficult.

Resilience is the ability to adapt, cope, recover and keep going when life doesn't go to plan. It is the skills and support that help us manage challenges, setbacks, change and difficult emotions.

For young people, resilience can look very different from one child to anther.

One young person may face a difficult situation and appear to brush it off, while another may become overwhelmed, anxious, angry, withdrawn or lose confidence. This doesn't necessarily mean that one young person is more resilient than the other. Young people respond to challenges in different ways depending on their lived experiences, personality, relationships, environment and the support available to them.

It's also important to remember that resilience isn't something a young person has or doesn't have. It can develop over time.

Everyday experiences can provide opportunities for young people to build resilience. Learning to manage disappointment, trying something that feels difficult, solving problems, developing friendships, making mistakes, asking for help and discovering that they can overcome things that they once thought they couldn't.

The adults around young people play an incredibly important role in this.

We can't remove everyday difficulty from a young person's life, and we don't need to. Instead, we can help them develop the skills and confidence to face difficulties with support. Sometimes that means encouraging them to have another go. Sometimes it's helping them name how they are feeling. Sometimes it simply means being there and reminding them that they don't have to face things alone.

Building resilience is not about expecting young people to cope with everything independently. In fact, knowing when to ask for help and feeling safe enough to do so is an important part of resilience.

When we help young people develop resilience, we are helping them build foundations that can support them throughout childhood, adolescence and into adult hood.

Small moments can make a big difference.

A young person who learns 'I can try again', 'I can ask for help', 'I can cope with this feeling' or 'I made a mistake but I can learn from this' is developing something incredibly valuable.

Resilience isn't about never struggling. It's about learning that when we do struggle, we can find ways forward.

And sometimes, that journey starts with just one small step.