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The Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health
(US Department of Health and Human Services, 1999) defines health in childhood and adolescence as “the successful performance
of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt
to change and to cope with adversity; from early childhood until late life, mental health is the springboard of thinking and
communication skills, learning, emotional growth, resilience, and self esteem.”
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, talks about self-efficacy as a key component of emotional intelligence.
Self-efficacy is the belief that one has mastery over the events of one’s life and can meet challenges as they come
up. According to Goleman, “developing a competency of any kind strengthens the sense of self-efficacy, making a person
more willing to take risks and seek out more demanding challenges… This attitude makes people more likely to make the
best use of whatever skills they may have – or to do what it takes to develop them.”
Robert Brooks, Ph.D., Author of Raising Resilient Children, says that resilience is the most important quality we can instill
in our children. He describes resilience as “capable of facing and overcoming adversity, able to meet life’s challenges
with thoughtfulness, confidence, purpose, hope, and empathy.”
The National Research Council’s Committee on Community-Level Programs for Youth conducted
a two-year study that resulted in a research based summary that details eight features of positive developmental settings.
They are:
Physical and Psychological Safety
Appropriate Structure
Supportive Relationships (e.g. explicit mentoring or implicit program design for extensive one-to
one, or small group connections between young people and adults)
Opportunities to Belong
Positive Social Norms
Support for Efficacy and Mattering (i.e., opportunities for autonomy, challenge and taking responsibility)
Opportunities
for Skill Building
Integration of Family, School and Community Efforts
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