Resilience and recovery in young people

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  A questionnaire study investigating the relationship between factors associated with resilience and social recovery in young people experiencing mental health difficulties

• IRAS ID

  123554

• Contact name

  Halina Flannery

• Contact email

  h.flannery@surrey.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Surrey

• Research summary

  Social recovery has been defined as “a process of changing one’s orientation and behaviour from a negative focus on a troubling event, condition or circumstance to the positive restoration, rebuilding, reclaiming or taking control of one’s life” (NIMHE, 2005) and has emphasised the importance of not solely focusing on symptomatic improvement.

  Current NHS policy emphasises the importance of social recovery, however there is very little research on the concept of recovery from the perspective of young people. Research into resilience in young people has identified that self-esteem, peer and family support, self-efficacy and problem solving skills are associated with positive adaptation to mental health difficulties and it is hypothesised that these findings can be used to enhance our understanding of social recovery in young people who have experienced, or are experiencing mental health difficulties. This research aims to further our understanding of the concept and assessment of social recovery in young people by investigating if:
  • scores on self-report questionnaire measures of self-esteem, peer and family support, self-efficacy and problem solving skills are positively associated with new parent- and child- report measures of social recovery, the Recovery Questionnaire (RE-QUEST), in young people aged 10 to 16 years who are accessing specialist mental health services
  • the RE-QUEST measures can show change over time by asking participants to complete the measure again six months later and assessing if scores change over time and if any changes are associated with symptom intensity (parent- and child- report)
  • scores on measures of self-esteem, peer and family support, self-efficacy and problem solving skills can predict outcome six months later on the RE-QUEST and a measure of symptom intensity, and if any predictive utility will be upheld when gender, age, initial level of social recovery and symptom severity are taken into account

• REC name

  London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  13/LO/1204

• Date of REC Opinion

  4 Oct 2013

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion