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Coping strategies and the development of psychological resilience

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Abstract

This paper describes psychological theory about stress, coping, and psychological resilience, and considers how coping strategies can help develop resilience in the context of outdoor education. Outdoor education programs often aim to develop psychological resilience through structured challenging and reflective experiences. Use of coping strategies such as positive reinterpretation appears to be resilience enhancing, whereas passive acceptance and focusing on negative emotion are resilience undermining. Further research is needed to better integrate psychoeducational curricula about stress and coping into challenge-based outdoor education programs which aim to foster psychological resilience.

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Correspondence to Jessie W. Booth.

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Jessie Booth is an outdoor instructor with the majority of her career spent at Outward Bound Australia. She aims to use the skills learnt through her psychology degree to strengthen the connection between outdoor education and psychology.

James’ expertise is in research and evaluation of outdoor education and adventure therapy programs.

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Booth, J.W., Neill, J.T. Coping strategies and the development of psychological resilience. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 20, 47–54 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03401002

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