The report, entitled Research study into Resilience in Young People, explored the multiple factors of youth resilience in the context of targeted youth service support.
The research is an innovative approach co-designed by the University, Bristol City Council (BCC) and Creative Youth Network (CYN) that was largely carried out by undergraduates as research assistants supervised by University academics.
The research has been led by Dr Jo Staines and Dr Jack Nicholls from the School for Policy Studies in collaboration with BCC and CYN to look at what research might be able to add to current understanding of youth services and commissioning decisions.
The student researchers were all students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law (SSL) and their involvement was co-ordinated by the Faculty’s Professional Liaison Network (PLN), which provides additional career opportunities for students outside of their degree courses.
Overseen by Dr Nicholls and Dr Staines, the students assisted with scoping the project, conducted interviews with young people and helped in compiling the report.
The research found that:
- Youth resilience is a complex social characteristic that is dependent on a multitude of factors associated with an individual, their relationships, social networks and various contextual realities.
- Youth resilience is not an inherent character trait; rather the product of the external support systems surrounding the individual and their interaction with these.
- It is challenging, if not impossible, to make a single or overall judgement on what affects the resilience of a young person, not least as the balance between risk and protective factors is highly contextual; what can be a protective factor for one person can be a risk factor for another.
- Youth resilience is a term that should be used with care.
Research was also carried out into organisational resilience and identified factors that help contribute to stability within these organisations. A report into these findings was published in January.
For more information see the project page.