Building Resilience: Piloting a Mindful Self-Compassion and Stress-Management Program for Youth

Anxiety disorders, representing the most prevalent classification of mental health disorders across the world, pose a significant public health problem associated with burdensome costs (Baxter, Vos, Scott, Ferrari, & Whiteford, 2014; Greenberg et al., 1999). Although understanding about the etiology and effective treatments for anxiety disorders has grown, general preventative measures are not well-understood or implemented but are needed to reduce the disability and morbidity associated with this debilitating class of disorders. Research has identified perfectionism and self-criticism as risk factors for the development of anxiety disorders and mindful self-compassion (MSC) as a promising intervention to alleviate anxiety disorders (Dunkley, Blankstein, & Berg, 2012; Germer & Neff, 2013). Laying the foundation for youth to mitigate risks of anxiety disorders should be a top priority for the United States (U.S.) healthcare system. A focus on primary prevention is largely missing from healthcare, and the present paper represents an attempt to bridge this gap through a pilot project. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the efficacy, suitability, sustainability, and potential barriers to implementing a MSC and stress management (MSCSM) program in a nonclinical population of middle school youth. A 12-year old student participant (n=1) endorsed a drop in self-compassion as measured by the SCS-Y (Neff et al., 2021) from 3.76 pre-intervention to 3.35 post-intervention. College mentor participants reported benefitting from the program. Challenges of data collection for middle school participants were identified, benefits and barriers of the program were analyzed, and a sustainability proposal was offered