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Solomon, Naomi Shanni (2023) 'What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger': adolescent cyber-victims' experiences of resilience training : an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Background/Aims:
An unprecedented mental health crisis exists amongst adolescents in the UK today; increased anxiety and depression (Gunnel et al, 2018), leading to increased suicidal ideation and suicide rates, means NHS Mental Health services struggle to cope with the demands on their limited resources (Crenna-Jennings & Hutchinson, 2018). Cyberbullying is on the rise and is linked to the decreased mental health in today's adolescents (Stillman & Baumeister, 2009). Resilience training interventions have been promoted to counter the effects of adolescent mental distress (Chmitorz et al, 2018).
The aim of the study is to attempt to discern possible unnamed processes of resilience development through the cyber-victim participants' individual meaning-making of the resilience training that they have undergone.
Methods:
Verbatim accounts of semi-structured interviews were analysed, utilising Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The participants were six adolescent cybervictims, aged 13-14 who had recently undergone Resilience training (RT).
Findings:
In the process of analysis, three superordinate themes were generated: Pre-RT challenges: personal and interpersonal (which included their experience of online negativity and abuse and the ensuing maladaptive psychological responses), Acquiring resilience through training (referring to how they understood obtaining their own resilience and perceptions of the training itself), and Insights gained from RT (which describes their personal and interpersonal psychological shift, post-RT.
The PHE (Public Health England, 2019) call to hear the voices of the children suggested that the existing RT programs may not be aware of the experience of adolescents who undergo RT in the context of having struggled with cyber-bullying. The participants in this study highlighted important discoveries regarding their innate resilience and internal strengths. Witnessing the lived experience of those who have travelled through both adversity and discovery, from maladaptive to adaptive coping, can help translate their journey into advancement in both Counselling Psychology (CoP) clinical settings and future prospective RT initiatives.
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