Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T17:59:56.612Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Bright Ideas: A School-Based Program Teaching Optimistic Thinking Skills in Pre-Adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Cathy M. Brandon
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Everarda G. Cunningham*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Erica Frydenberg
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
*
Department of Learning and Educational Development, Faculty of Education, University of MelbourneParkville 3052, Victoria Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Research into the areas of depression and resilience suggests that an optimistic attributional style is a key factor in coping effectively with stressors and functioning adaptively despite adversity. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a program designed to increase positive thinking skills, through awareness and practice, to pre-adolescent children who have been identified as exhibiting a more pessimistic explanatory style. From a total of 110 Year 5 and 6 students, 38 students were selected to participate in the program because they exhibited a more pessimistic explanatory style. Program participants were administered the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) at pre-, post-, and 3-month post-program. Non-program participants completed the CASQ at pre- and 3-month post- program. Results indicated that program participants significantly improved their attributional style scores post program, and that these improvements were maintained at 3-month post-program follow-up. When attributional style difference scores at pre- and 3-month post program were compared, improved scores for program participants were significantly greater than changes in attributional style scores for those students who were not in the program. Given the links between attributional style, depression, and a range of behaviours, such promising results warrant further investigation into the effects of such a program on other outcome measures. The findings provide support for the benefits to be gained by developing positive attributional style during the pre-adolescent years.

Type
Interventions
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beardslee, W.R. (1990). The role of understanding in resilient individuals: The development of a perspective. Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Development, 3, 5269.Google Scholar
Bernard, M.E., & Joyce, M.R. (1993). Rational-emotive therapy with children and adolescents. In Kratochwill, T.R. & Morris, R.J. (Eds.), Handbook of Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents (pp. 258287). Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Brotman-Band, E., & Weisz, J.R. (1988). How to feel better when it feels bad: Children's perspectives on coping with everyday stress. Developmental Psychology, 24, 247253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, G. W., Hawkins, W., Murphy, M., Sheeber, L. B., Lewinson, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (1995). Targeted prevention of unipolar depressive disorder in an at risk sample of high school adolescents: A randomised trial of a group cognitive intervention. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 312321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compas, B.E. (1987). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 10, 393403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compas, B.E. (1995). Promoting successful coping during adolescence. In Rutter, M., (Ed.). Psychological disturbances in young people: Challenges for prevention (pp. 247273). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Compas, B. E., & Hammen, C. L. (1994). Child and adolescent depression: Covariation and comorbidity in development. In Haggerty, R. J., Sherrod, L. R., Garmezy, N., & Rutter, M. (Eds.), Stress, risk, and resilience in children and adolescents: Processes, mechanisms, and interventions (pp. 225267). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, A. (1987). A sadly neglected cognitive element in depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 121146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, S. (1991). Resilience and human adaptability: Who rises above adversity? American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 45, 493503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fombonne, E. (1995) Depressive disorders: Time trends and possible explana-tory mechanisms. In Rutter, M. & Smith, D. J. (Eds.), Psychological Disorders in Young People (pp. 544615). West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E. (1997). Adolescent Coping: Theoretical and Research Perspectives. London: Routlage.Google Scholar
Garmezy, N. (1983). Stressors of childhood. In Garmezy, N. & Rutter, M. (Eds.). Stress, coping, and development in children (pp. 4384). NY: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Jaycox, L.H., Reivich, J.G., Gillham, J. & Seligman, M.E.R. (1994). Prevention of depressive symptoms in school children, Behavioural Research and Therapy, 32, 801816.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovacs, M. (1997). The Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture 1994. Depressive disorders in childhood: An impressionistic landscape. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38 287298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIver, D.J. & Epstien, J.L. (1991). Responsive practices in the middle grades: Teacher teams, advisory groups remedial instruction and school transition programs. Special Issue: Development and education across ad&olescence. American Journal of Education, 99, 587622.Google Scholar
Matheny, K. B., Aycock, D. W., & McCarthy, C.J. (1993). Stress in school-aged children and youth, Educational Psychology Review, 5,109134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McWhirter, J.J., McWhirter, B.T., McWhirter, A.M., & McWhirter, E.H. (1998). At-risk youth: A comprehensive response. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Moos, R.H. (1992). Understanding individuals' life contexts: Implications for stress reduction and prevention. In Kessler, M., S.E., , Goldston, S.E., & Joffe, J. M. (Eds.), The present and future of prevention (pp. 196212). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J.S., & Seligman., M.E.R. (1986). Learned helplessness in children: A longitudinal study of depression, achievement, and explanatory style, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 435442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Girgus, J.S. & Seligman., M.E.R. (1992). Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 405422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, A.C., Compas, B.E., BrooksGunn, J., Stemmler, M., Ey, S., & Grant, K. E. (1993). Depression in adolescence. American Psychologist, 48,155168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, C. M. (1999). The prevention of depression in children and adolescents. Australian Psychologist, 34,4957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M. (1985). Resilience in the face of adversity: Protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorder, British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 598611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1994). Stress research: Accomplishments and tasks ahead. In Haggerty, R. J., Sherrod, L. R., Garmezy, N. & Rutter, M. (Eds.), Stress, risk, and resilience in children and adolescents: Processes, mechanisms, and interventions. (pp. 354386). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, R.M. (1986). The internal dialogue: On the asymmetry between positive and negative coping thoughts, Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 591605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzer, R. & Schwarzer, C. (1996). A critical survey of coping instruments. In Zeidner, N. & Endler, N.S. (Eds.). Hand-book of Coping: Theory, research, applications (pp. 107132). NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Segerstrom, S. C., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1988). Optimism is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 16461655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seligman, M.E.P., Peterson, C., Kaslow, N.J., Tanenbaum, R.L., Alloy, L.B., & Abramson, L.Y. (1984). Attributional style and depressive symptoms among children, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 235238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seligman, M.E.P. (1992). Learned Optimism. NSW, Australia: Random House.Google Scholar
Seligman, M.E.P. (1995). The Optimistic Child. NSW, Australia: Random House.Google Scholar
Shochet, I.The Griffity early intervention depression project: Progress report on a school-based program for the prevention of adolescent depression. Unpublished manuscript, Griffith University, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Spence, S. H. (1994). Preventative strategies. In Ollendick, T. H., King, N. J., & Yule, W. (Eds.), International handbook of phobic and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (pp. 453474). New York: PlenumCrossRefGoogle Scholar