Evaluation of a Resiliency Focused Health Coaching Intervention for Middle School Students: Building Resilience for Healthy Kids Program

Introduction: Youth mental health issues are a growing public health concern. Resilience has been identified as a mitigating factor for adverse mental health outcomes. Schools have shown an increasing interest in strategies to support students’ mental health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a school-based 1:1 health coaching program designed to build resilience by teaching students coping skills and strategies to increase their self-efficacy. Study Design: Single group intervention study with pre/post measures. Setting/Participants: Sixth grade students (aged 11-12 years) attending an urban middle school. Intervention: Youth participated in up to 6 resiliency-focused, 1:1 health coaching sessions completed over 8 weeks and conducted during the school day. Health coaches utilized motivational interviewing techniques to set and work toward resilience-related goals focused on improving coping skills and self-efficacy with youth during the intervention (January through March 2020). Main Outcome Measures: The Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Revised and other mental health assessments were completed at baseline and immediately following completion of the intervention to evaluate outcomes. Paired sample t-tests and Hedges’ g effect sizes were conducted to evaluate intervention effectiveness. Student participation rates were assessed throughout the intervention. Results: 287 youth participated in the study (87% participation rate) and participated in over 85% of health coaching sessions offered. A paired samples t-test revealed the youth resilience significantly increased from pre ( M = 75.7, SD = 6.9) to post ( M = 77.6, SD = 6.8) intervention ( t[257] = 3.73, p < .001) and the size of the effect was medium ( g = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.46). Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that health coaching can be an effective strategy for improving resiliency in youth. Future studies evaluating how to effectively disseminate this intervention strategy are planned.