A scoping review of universal school-based resilience programs for adolescents

Resilience, broadly defined as effective adaptation to stress, adversity, or change, is an important capacity to foster in adolescence. To date, there has been little review of the literature on universal school-based resilience programs for teens. The current scoping review had three aims. The first aim was to report on the scope of literature on universal school-based resilience programs for adolescents. The second aim was to code and summarize the features and outcomes of these programs (stand-alone programs and whole-school programs). The third was to identify key themes emanating from nonempirical articles (i.e., theoretical articles, review articles, published guidelines, and reports) about what makes an effective school-based resilience program for adolescents. A total of 34 articles met the criteria for the review (47% empirical and 53% nonempirical). The collated data present a summary of who (e.g., sample demographics), how (e.g., research designs, the duration and number of posttest evaluations), and what has been studied (e.g., the types of programs and the types of outcomes). Randomized control trial evaluations (53%) and quasi-experimental designs (47%) were the common designs. The studies displayed large variation when it came to program delivery aspects such as number of lessons, length of the lessons, duration of the program, type of teaching, and program facilitators. Six themes were identified for creating effective universal school-based resilience programs: dual focus (ill-being and well-being), ethos and embedding, nurturing environment, adopting a systems approach, building teacher resilience, and fostering real-time resilience through implicit and explicit teaching. Suggestions for future research are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).