Presentation from the article: Booth, J., & Neill, J. T. (2016). Coping strategies and the development of psychological resilience in outdoor education. Paper presented at the 19th National Outdoor Education Conference, University of Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, March 29 - April 1.

1. A presentation
by
Jessie Booth &
James Neill
RESILIENCE AND
COPING IN
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
19th National
Outdoor Education
Conference, March
30, 2016 University
of Sunshine Coast,
Queensland,
Australia.

2.  Introduce psychological theory about stress, coping
and resilience.
 Review research about coping strategies and
resilience in outdoor education (OE).
 Explore how OE can use coping
strategies to contribute to the
development of resilience.
THIS PRESENTATION WILL:

3. Hardiness
Resourcefulness
Mental toughness
RESILIENCE – RELATED CONCEPTS

4.  Capacity for adapting well in the face of tragedy,
trauma, threats or significant stress
(American Psychological Association, 2010)
 Bouncing back from a challenging experience
(Smith et al., 2008)
 Conceptualisation has changed from being a special,
invulnerable characteristic of some individuals to a
normal achievable and basic human adaptation
system.
PSYCHOLOOGICAL RESILIENCE

5. RESILIENCE – SOURCES
some types of risk
make individuals
vulnerable
protective factors
lessen an individuals
response to
adversity (or make
them more resilient)
Antecedent → Adversity
(e.g., experiences that are difficult
to adjust to)
Response → Positive adaptation
(e.g., behavioural competencies that are
symptoms of internal well-being)
Coping

6.  Coping = behavioural and cognitive attempts to
manage stress (Carpenter, 1992)
 Diverse range of coping skills enables healthy
adaptation.
 Transactional model of stress and coping
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1987)
1. Primary appraisal = perception of a threat as irrelevant/benign or
stressful.
2. Secondary appraisal = selecting a response to the threat to best
manage it.
COPING

7.  3 main categories of coping responses
(Folkman & Lazarus, 1980):
 Problem-focused
 Emotion-focused
 Avoidant
 We should be cautious about
labelling particular coping
strategies as positive or negative
because each may be effective in
particular situations.
COPING

8. Stress Inoculation Model
 Similar to development of immunity against disease
 Small dosages of stress allow the system to build resilience
COPING & RESILIENCE
Challenge
(Stress-inducing
experience)
Adaptive
coping
behaviour
Increased
resilience and
adaptability
Stress Coping Resilience

9.  Psychoeducation sessions (x4) for stressed uni students:
 resilience and stress models, coping strategies, responsibility,
changing disempowering interpretations, creating meaningful
connections, and self-leadership
 Results (compared to control group):
 Significantly higher resilience scores
 Greater use of problem-focused coping strategies
 Lower use of avoidant coping strategies
 Techniques to develop coping (what we can do in OE):
 Psychoeducation
 Change environment/ stressor to test and practice responses
 Coping effectiveness training and practice
STUDY 1 – COPING INTERVENTION
(STEINHARDT & DOLBIER, 2008)

10.  Unfamiliar, wilderness environments
 Challenging nature of adventure activities
 Guided facilitation of experiences
 Group dynamics
 In theory, this can create constructive anxiety or dissonance
 Participants are required to engage coping strategies and
therefore build resilience
 Generally positive but variable results in studies examining
change in resilience through OE programs
OE AS A RESILIENCE INTERVENTION

11.  Neill and Dias (2001): Adult participants in a 22-day Outward Bound
Australia program
(large change: d = 1.10, N = 41)
 Shellman (2009): Youth participants in 14 to 30 day Outward Bound
USA programs
(large change: d = 0.87, N = 63)
 Hayhurst, Hunter, Kafka, & Boyes (2015): Youth participants in a 10-
day New Zealand sail training voyage
(moderate change: d = 0.59, N = 66)
 Ewert & Yoshino (2011). US college students outdoor adventure
education semester program
(moderate change: d = 0.40, N = 66)
 However, other studies have found no significant changes:
 Sheard and Golby (2006): 26 university students in UK for a 3-month outdoor
adventure education curriculum.
 Skehill (2001): 99 adolescents in initial 5-week period of residential program
that combined outdoor education with traditional school curriculum.
RESILIENCE &
OUTDOOR EDUCATION STUDIES

12. Investigated development of psychological
resilience and the contribution of different
coping strategies
Outward Bound program for adolescents
Mixed method
(quantitative &
qualitative)
COPING & RESILIENCE IN OUTDOOR ED
(BOOTH, 2015)

14. I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times.
I have a hard time making it through stressful
events. (R)
It does not take me long to recover from a
stressful event.
It is hard for me to snap back when something
bad happens. (R)
I usually come through difficult times with little
trouble.
I tend to take a long time to get over set-backs in
my life. (R)
BRIEF RESILIENCE SCALE
(SMITH ET AL., 2008)

15. CHANGE IN RESILIENCE
FOR EACH PARTICIPANT
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

16. RESULTS - CHANGE IN RESILIENCE
QUANTITATIVE: Small increase in resilience-
effect size= .2 (small)
 Positive change
 Typical of OE/Resilience results
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Time1 Time2
QUALITATIVE: over half 14 interviewed participants had positive changes
in resilience.

17. COPE
(CARVER ET AL., 1989)

18. Average overall use of
strategy
4= a lot
3= a medium amount
2= a little bit
1= not at all
COPING
STRATEGIES
DURING AN OE
PROGRAM
Resilience-enhancing
Resilience-undermining

19. 3 coping strategies partially explained change in
resilience:
 Qualitative data showed greater use of:
 Positive Reinterpretation:
Construing a stressful transaction in positive terms
e.g., “I learnt something from the experience.”
 Quantitative data showed lower use of:
 Acceptance:
Accepting the reality of a stressful situation
e.g., I learnt to live with it.
 Focus on and Venting of Emotions:
Focusing on what is distressing or upsetting and ventilating those feelings
e.g., I felt a lot of emotional distress and found myself expressing those
feelings a lot.
predicted greater positive changes in resilience
RESULTS – CONTRIBUTION OF COPING TO
CHANGE IN RESILIENCE

20.  Resilience is a core psychological outcome targetted by
outdoor education programs
 There is positive but varied evidence about effect of OE
on participants’ resilience levels.
 Psychological theory suggests coping strategies can
influence development of resilience.
 Thus, to improve outcomes of OE programs, consider:
 Greater integration of psychoeducation to help guide participants’
coping strategy skill and choices
 Facilitators can be influential in teaching, facilitating, and role
modeling use of adaptive coping skills
 Specially target:
 Positive reinterpretation (↑)
 Acceptance (↓)
 Focus on and venting of emotion (↓)
CONCLUSION

21.  jessiewbooth@gmail.com
 james.neill@canberra.edu.au
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