Resilience-building with disabled children and young people: a review and critique of the academic evidence base


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RESILIENCE-BUILDING WITH DISABLED CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE:   
A REVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF THE ACADEMIC EVIDENCE BASE 

 

 
Angie Hart, Becky Heaver, Elinor Brunnberg, Anette Sandberg, Hannah Macpherson, 

Stephanie Coombe, and Elias Kourkoutas 
 

 

  
Abstract: The aim of this paper was to review published accounts of resilience-based 
 approaches with and for disabled children and young people aged up to 25 years. The 
 review is part of a broader study looking more generally at resilience-based 
 interventions with and for young people. The authors attempt to summarise the 
 approaches and techniques that might best support those children and young people 
 who need them the most. However, when compared to the number of evaluated 
 resilience-based approaches to working with typically-developing children and young 
 people, those including children and young people with complex needs are 
 disappointingly lacking. Of 830 retrieved references, 46 were relevant and 23 met the 
 inclusion criteria and form the body of this review. They covered a variety of 
 intervention content, setting, and delivery, and diverse children and young people, 
 making comparative evaluation prohibitive. The difficulties in identifying suitable 
 resilience-based interventions are discussed, together with the authors’ iterative 
 approach, which was informed by realist review methodology for complex social 
 interventions. The review is set into a context of exclusion, an ableist mindset and 
 the political economy of research. It also provides recommendations for future 
 research and practice development in this field. 
  
 Keywords: resilience, intervention, disability, young people, review  

Acknowledgement: The authors would like to thank Marina Trowell for her 
 assistance with article screening and translation. 

 

 

 

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Professor Angie Hart, Centre 
for Health Research, University of Brighton, 264 Mayfield House, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 
9PH, United Kingdom. Tel: +44(0)1273 644051 Fax: +44(0)1273 644541                             
E-mail: a.hart@brighton.ac.uk 

 

 

 

mailto:a.hart@brighton.ac.uk


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Angie Hart is Professor of Child, Family & Community Health at Centre for Health 
Research, Mayfield House, University of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH, UK.               
E-mail: a.hart@brighton.ac.uk  

 

Becky Heaver is Research Officer at Centre for Health Research, Mayfield House, University 
of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH, UK. E-mail: b.heaver@brighton.ac.uk  

 

Elinor Brunnberg is Professor of Social Work at School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, 
Mälardalen University, Drottninggatan 16A, Eskilstuna, Sweden.                                            
E-mail: elinor.brunnberg@mdh.se 

 

Anette Sandberg is Professor of Education at School of Education, Culture and 
Communication, Mälardalen University, Högskoleplan 1, Västerås, Sweden.                         
E-mail: anette.sandberg@mdh.se  

 

Hannah Macpherson is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at School of Environment and 
Technology, Cockcroft Building, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Moulsecoomb, 
Brighton, BN2 4GJ, UK. E-mail: hm139@brighton.ac.uk  

 

Stephanie Coombe is Ph.D. Student at Centre for Health Research, Mayfield House, 
University of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH, UK. E-mail: S.I.Green@brighton.ac.uk  

 

Elias Kourkoutas is Associate Professor of Psychopathology and Special Education at 
Department of Primary Education, University of Crete, Gallos Campus, Rethymnon, Crete, 
GR-74100, Greece. E-mail: hkourk@edc.uoc.gr  

 

mailto:a.hart@brighton.ac.uk
mailto:b.heaver@brighton.ac.uk
mailto:elinor.brunnberg@mdh.se
mailto:anette.sandberg@mdh.se
mailto:hm139@brighton.ac.uk
mailto:S.I.Green@brighton.ac.uk
mailto:hkourk@edc.uoc.gr


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Resilience may be usefully viewed as positive development despite adversity (see 
Hart, Blincow, & Thomas, 2007; Masten, 2011; Rutter, 2006; Ungar, 2012). Hart et al. (2007) 
suggest that “resilience is evident where people with persistently few assets and resources, 
and major vulnerabilities … have better outcomes than we might expect given their 
circumstances, and in comparison to … other children in their contexts” (p. 10). 

There is a vast academic literature on resilience-building with children and young 
people, and the benefits and outcomes of interventions or programs designed to enhance 
specific or general aspects of their resilience. These include concrete progress, such as 
improved confidence, coping and self-esteem, and less measureable outcomes, such as doing 
better than expected, or simply maintaining the status quo (Hart et al., 2007). These benefits 
are of particular importance to children and young people with disabilities, who face 
additional adversity, disadvantage, and challenges to their development. The purpose of the 
review is to summarise which resilience interventions were effective in enhancing resilience, 
and with what populations, with a focus on whether and how children and young people with 
disabilities were included in academic studies of explicit resilience-building approaches. Prior 
to interrogating the evidence base, this article sets out why it focuses on children and young 
people with disabilities and the enhancement of resilience, how we define disability, and the 
approach used to conduct the review.  

There is a strong link between disability, exclusion, and socioeconomic inequality 
(Hosseinpoor et al., 2013), and the implications for children and young people with 
disabilities depend on the nature of their disability, where they live, their culture, 
socioeconomic status, and gender (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 
2013b; van Campen & van Santvoort, 2013). Figures show that in particular, education, 
training, and employment opportunities for girls with disabilities are fewer than for girls 
without disabilities, and even boys with disabilities (Groce, 2004). Children with long-term 
illnesses or disabilities have been shown to underperform in educational attainment, maths, 
verbal and non-verbal skills, at age seven, compared to their non-disabled peers (Jones, 
Gutman, & Platt, 2013). Contact a Family (2013) recently reported that children with 
disabilities experience illegal exclusions from school on a regular basis in England and Wales.  

Young people with neurodevelopmental conditions, learning or mental health 
difficulties, in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada, are more likely to go to prison 
than other young people because the youth justice system is failing to recognise their needs 
(Doob & Cesaroni, 2004; Hughes, Williams, Chitsabesan, Davies, & Mounce, 2012; Odgers, 
Burnette, Chauhan, Moretti, & Reppucci, 2005; Talbot, 2010). Swedish adolescents with 
disabilities are more likely to experience psychological symptoms (Brunnberg, Lindén 
Boström, & Berglund, 2007) and abuse, such as force at sexual debut, than adolescents 
without disabilities (Brunnberg, Lindén Boström, & Berglund, 2012). A study from 
Switzerland compared the prevalence and intensity of victimisation from bullying and found 
higher rates of teasing, physical aggression, and social exclusion for adolescents with chronic 
conditions compared to young people without chronic conditions (Pittet, Berchtols, Akre, 
Michaud, & Suris, 2010). Young people with a learning difficulty may also be at increased 
risk of substance misuse, which Cosden (2001) suggests may be a negative coping strategy 
related to the developmental need for family support over a longer period of time, increased 
difficulty in making friendships with peers, and a lack of understanding of the effects of their 
own disability. The general pressures of living in an ableist society are also likely to 
contribute. 



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The World Health Association (WHO) considers participation in age-appropriate 
activities to be essential for understanding functioning of children with disabilities (WHO, 
2007). It also improves children’s social relationships, academic performance, mental health, 
physical health, and skills and competencies (Forsyth & Jarvis, 2002; Janssen & Leblanc, 
2010; Mâsse, Miller, Shen, Schiariti, & Roxborough, 2013). However, it is clear that children 
and young people with disabilities are often excluded from activities others take for granted, 
many of which can help to build resilience. For example, Mâsse et al. (2013) found that in 
Canadian schools, children with a range of disabilities were restricted from participating in 
educational, physical, and social/recreational activities such as art/music lessons or summer 
camp, particularly if they were from poorer families or had more severe disabilities.  

Perusing the resilience literature, it seems to us that most academic research is 
conducted from a psychological or medical view of disability (e.g., Lee et al., 2009; Storch et 
al., 2012), instead of a social model of disability (e.g., Evans & Plumridge, 2007; Runswick-
Cole & Goodley, 2013). Some have even critiqued the concept of resilience itself, for making 
implicitly ableist assumptions and being conflated with normative perspectives on health 
(Hutcheon & Wolbring, 2013). This is clearly a contested area, hence an important question 
to consider is what is meant by disability, and how it will be defined and measured relative to 
this review, in order to answer the question: whether and how children and young people with 
disabilities are included in academic studies of explicit resilience-building approaches. 

In writing this paper our interest in resilience from a disability perspective, as 
researchers, parents, and practitioners, arises in part from our personal circumstances. Our 
group of seven includes adults who identify as having disabilities, parents of children with 
complex needs, and practitioners who work day-to-day with disabled children and young 
people. Exploration within our team revealed 25 conditions or differences perceived by 
society as disabilities, including physical disabilities, neurodiversity, sensory impairment, 
chronic medical conditions, learning difficulties, and mental health difficulties.  

Method  

According to the WHO (2012): 

‘Disabilities’ is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and 
participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or  structure; 
an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in  executing a task or 
action; while a participation restriction is a problem  experienced by an individual in 
involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a  complex phenomenon, reflecting 
an interaction between features of a person’s  body and features of the society in which 
he or she lives.  

Whilst this is the definition of disability we are using, we cannot do it justice because 
it rendered our search unfeasibly large. The issue of defining “disability” is itself subjective, 
multifarious, and incredibly nuanced. It has implications for those who do or do not fit a 
particular definition, and corresponds to a vast and growing disability studies literature from a 
variety of theoretical perspectives (e.g., Salvador-Carulla & Gasca, 2010; Schalock & 
Luckasson, 2013). Understandably, the way that disability is defined can affect the research 
findings (Grönvik, 2009), but including a wide range of disability-related search terms made 
the search broad and non-specific. Therefore we took a pragmatic approach. Disability in this 
review was conceived to include children and young people fitting the WHO (2012) 
definition of disability, but in particular those with physical disability, severe or chronic 
physical or psychiatric illness, and learning difficulty, mostly referred to in the research base 



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as learning, cognitive, or intellectual disability, despite preference of the term “learning 
difficulties” by self-advocates who have them (Goodley, 2005). 

Limited time and resources made a wider search impractical. Therefore we did not 
specifically include mental health/illness search terms, which themselves return a vast number 
of results. This is in part due to the popularity of “well-being” programs and the perceived 
preventative nature of resilience interventions aimed at preventing depression, anxiety and 
stress, and increasing socio-emotional competence in typically-developing children and young 
people with average levels of need. The aim of our review was not to look at broad 
interventions aimed at the mental health of the general population, but those focused 
specifically on children and young people with the most long-term and complex needs.  

Our review methodology grew out of the “realist” review approach for complex social 
interventions (Pawson, Greenhalgh, Harvey, & Walshe, 2005), which aims to identify what 
works for whom, in what circumstances, in what respects and how. Resilience-enhancing 
interventions generally do not suit a traditional review approach due to a lack of comparable 
elements. We formulated some broad aims in consultation with the parents and practitioners 
with whom we regularly work, and incorporated these into an iterative, flexible approach 
outlined below (as per Hart & Heaver, 2013).  

A parsimonious search was made using disability search terms (disabl* OR disabilit* 
OR autis* OR chronic OR EBD OR severe) in conjunction with resilien* AND (youth OR 
young OR child* OR adolescen*). Additional search terms (e.g., “complex”, or terms relating 
to specific acquired and congenital conditions and disabilities, sensory impairment, 
psychiatric illness, neurodiversity or learning difficulties) did not increase the number of 
(relevant) results; therefore it was concluded that these concise terms were sufficient, and 
would be included in most papers concerning children and young people with a disability. 
Children and young people with what is generally termed “severe” mental health or 
behavioural problems were captured by inclusion of the search terms “severe” or (psychiatric) 
“disability”. The authors assessed whether or not papers included evaluated interventions on 
the basis of the abstract, rather than through search terms, as many unsuitable articles include 
the word “intervention” in the abstract referring to future directions. 

Articles were initially retrieved from the literature by searching EBSCO databases 
(AMED, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, eBook Collection, E-
Journals, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus), Expanded Academic ASAP, AEI, 
BEI, ERIC, IBSS, PubMed, Web of Science (incl. Medline), ScienceDirect, and Swedish 
databases Artikelsök and SwePuB, for articles between 2000 and 2013, which included 
resilience keywords in the title, and keywords related to disability and age group in the 
abstract. The search for articles emanating from the Nordic countries produced no results. 
Articles originated from countries including U.S.A., Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa, 
Taiwan, Mexico, Wales, Japan, Germany, and France, and were mostly written in English. 
Additional publications were identified in an iterative process via Google Scholar, hand 
searching reference lists, and discussion with colleagues. 

The authors screened 398 of the 830 retrieved references, and identified 46 documents 
as relevant on the basis of their title and abstract. In groups of 2 to 3 we reviewed each full 
text collaboratively, initially agreeing on 96% of the articles, and reaching 100% consensus 
on all papers after brief discussion. We considered 23 of the 46 articles to have met the 
inclusion criteria for the review (see Figure 1). 

 



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Figure 1: The review process. 

 

Initial inclusion criteria for the search were: At least some of the participants were 
children or young people aged 0 to 25 years, or were parents/carers/families/teachers of 
children or young people; at least some of the participants had a disability as defined 
previously; the intervention was resilience-based; the intervention was evaluated. 
Interventions were considered to be resilience-based if the following criteria were met: The 
authors had engaged with the resilience evidence base and attempted to link their program, or 
components of their program, with specific resilience-enhancing capacities (see, for example, 
Mental Health Foundation of Australia, 2005); articles included a definition or explanation of 
resilience that indicated the authors’ orientation with respect to the locus and nature of 
resilience (e.g., individual asset, dynamic transaction between individual/environment). In an 
iterative process, we expanded two of the inclusion criteria (that the intervention was 
resilience-based, and that the intervention was evaluated) in a second search, to increase the 
number of articles, and therefore the usefulness of the review. Some articles were also 
included that were not strictly interventions, but were excellent practice examples of 
resilience-building activities with children and young people with complex needs. 

The authors chose the age range because our work focuses on children and young 
people and the parents and practitioners supporting them. Furthermore, interventions with 
children and young people is where interventions potentially may make the larger difference. 
As the age group was so broad, and in line with realist approaches that document the 
ecological context of the interventions, programs were not required to target predefined 
developmental or resilience aspects which would be context- and age-specific. However, it 
was considered essential that discussion of underlying models or theories provided a 
conceptual basis for why the intervention would be effective in enhancing resilience in that 
age group (e.g., increased self-esteem). 

Consistent with our own practice, experience, and research interests, and because of 
the connection between inequalities, disability, and adversity, we wanted to capture any 
information regarding inequalities faced by the children and young people in the studies. 
Inequality, by and in itself, directly impacts on psychological and physical health, to a degree 



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that cannot simply be ameliorated by psychological interventions (Prilleltensky & 
Prilleltensky, 2005). An inequalities perspective is imperative when considering children and 
young people with disabilities and their families, who face additional financial hardship, lack 
of opportunities, more intense and longer-term caring responsibility, multiple bureaucratic 
procedures, access barriers, stigma and discrimination, and often have to negotiate with and 
manage multiple ineffective, unresponsive, and underfunded professionals and services, often 
reported to work in a disjointed fashion. Resilience scholars, and those writing about 
resilience interventions, often define “resilience” as residing solely within individuals, rather 
than as a dynamic interplay between persons and their environments (Hart et al., 2007).  
Making resilient moves with and/or on behalf of children and young people may be seen as a 
response to inequalities; therefore, resilience-based interventions might well include an 
inequalities dimension. The parents and practitioners with whom we are working support 
children and young people in contexts they would define as complex inequality or 
disadvantage, those who are “denied access to the tools needed for self-sufficiency” (Mayer, 
2003, p. 2). These parents and practitioners were eager to find out more about what best 
supports these children and young people’s resilience.  

Detailed information about each intervention was collated to gain an understanding of 
what worked, for whom and in what context: participant characteristics, method and intensity 
of delivery, setting and circumstances. To identify whether an intervention satisfied all or 
most of the inclusion criteria, aspects such as resilience definition, program-theory links, 
capacities, and measures and outcomes were also recorded. Additional headings collected 
evaluation design and methodology, program costs, funding and implementation history 
(where available), and strengths and weaknesses of the program and the evaluation. 

Results and Discussion 

When it came to identifying comparable resilience-based, well-evaluated 
interventions, the reality was bleak. In previous work (Hart & Heaver, 2013), we had to 
exclude some useful and innovative articles as they did not meet the inclusion criteria, the 
most common reasons being that they did not properly relate their study to resilience 
conceptually, despite using the term in the abstract or keywords. However, when looking for 
approaches to building resilience with disabled children and young people, had we applied the 
same strict criteria, just seven of the original 830 papers would have been suitable 
(Bloemhoff, 2006; Buckner et al., 2005; Leve, Fisher, & Chamberlain, 2009; Macpherson, 
Hart, & Heaver, in press; Mears & Stevenson, 2006; Theron, 2006; Woodier, 2011).  

After the first iteration of our search, we decided to expand our inclusion criteria – 
papers still had to address the population of interest (i.e., children and young people, with 
some of the sample having a disability), but they were also considered if they were resilience-
based but not evaluated (e.g., Alvord & Grados, 2005; Burka, 2007; Ellis, Braff, & 
Hutchinson, 2001), if their link to the resilience literature was not explicitly stated in the 
introduction, despite reporting a program that clearly could be conceptualised as increasing 
resilience (e.g., Ferreyra, 2001; Morison, Bromfield, & Cameron, 2003; Pelchat, 2010), and in 
some cases if they were not strictly “interventions”, for example describing the benefit of 
individual resilience-building activities that were not part of an intervention (Jessup, Cornell, 
& Bundy, 2010), or existing service provision that was not part of a research project (Evans & 
Plumridge, 2007; Morison et al., 2003). With a redefined set of inclusion criteria, the second 
iteration identified 23 of the papers as suitable for inclusion in this review. 



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Originally it was our intention to structure the results section according to the 
commonly asked questions of our own parent and practitioner collaborators, and attempt to 
identify what works for whom, in what circumstances, in what respects and how (e.g., 
Pawson et al., 2005; Hart & Heaver, 2013). However, there was so little actual data, that this 
has not been possible. Details that would satisfy these questions, such as cost, are often 
missing from published evaluations of resilience-based interventions involving participants 
who do not have disabilities; there is even less information available about interventions for 
the disabled children and young people who are the focus of this review. Therefore we have 
taken a slightly different approach, focusing more on what has been done and how, and who 
has been left out and why, rather than making evaluative comparisons of effectiveness.  

Participants 

Approximately 800 children and young people from nine countries participated in the 
23 studies, in samples sizes ranging from 2 to 213; Alvord and Grados (2005), Ferreyra 
(2001), Leve et al. (2009), and Mears and Stevenson (2006) did not provide sample sizes. 
Despite being key to interpreting the generalisability of their results, a large proportion of the 
studies omitted to report major demographic characteristics of their samples. Half the studies 
did not supply information about gender (Alvord & Grados, 2005; Burka, 2007; Ellis et al., 
2001; Evans & Plumridge, 2007; Ferreyra, 2001; Gauvin-Lepage & Lefebvre, 2012; Leve et 
al., 2009; Mears & Stevenson, 2006; Morison et al., 2003; Pelchat, 2010; Stallard et al., 
2005); of the studies that did, around 32% of participants were female (see Figure 2). The 
participants were aged 0 to 25 years, with the most commonly included age group being 13, 
and those aged between 9 and 18 years were most commonly included (in at least nine 
studies; see Figure 3). 

 

Figure 2: Gender breakdown of participants. 

 



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Figure 3: Frequency of age groups in the studies. 

 

 

Twenty of the 23 studies included solely disabled children and young people (some 
with multiple disabilities and complex needs), with the remaining three studies (Ellis et al., 
2001; Firth, Frydenberg, Steeg, & Bond, 2013; Stallard et al., 2005) also including typically-
developing peers (see Table 1). Only 6 studies gave any indication of participants’ 
socioeconomic status (Ellis et al., 2001; Ferreyra, 2001; Firth et al., 2013; Irie & Tsumura, 
2011; Lee et al., 2009; Stallard et al., 2005), with five studies reporting race/ethnicity 
(Buckner et al., 2005; Ferreyra, 2001; Firth et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2009; Storch et al., 2012), 
and none recording sexual orientation. 

What did the studies do exactly, for how long, and with what intensity? 

This review has confirmed our observations from many years of research and practice, 
that to be effective as practitioners, parents, and researchers in the resilience field, one has to 
be contextually focused. Perhaps understandably, one of the capacities specific to resilience-
building interventions for disabled children and young people that was not mentioned in 
interventions for typically-developing (or where no specific details of the sample were given, 
at least assumed to be typically-developing) peers, was “accurate understanding of the illness 
and its medical and psychosocial consequences” on the individual and the family (Shapiro, 
2002, p. 1376). Therefore some interventions included psychoeducation, information, and 
advice on helping the children and young people/families to cope with their specific condition 
or disability (e.g., Buckner et al., 2005; Evans & Plumridge, 2007; Ferreyra, 2001; Firth et al. 
2013; Mu & Chang, 2010; Shapiro, 2002; Storch et al., 2012). However, only two studies 



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included identity formation (see Gwernan-Jones, 2008) as a disabled young person (Ferreyra, 
2001) or as the family of a disabled child (Mu & Chang, 2010). 

Several interventions had a specific focus for enhancing resilience including: 
prevention elements such as mental health (Firth et al., 2013; Stallard et al., 2005; Storch et 
al., 2012) and substance use (Ferreyra, 2001); learning new skills such as problem-solving, 
social and life skills (Alvord & Grados, 2005; Ellis et al., 2001; Ferreyra, 2001; Macpherson 
et al., in press; Mears & Stevenson, 2006; Theron, 2006); leisure, outdoor activities, and 
hobbies (Bloemhoff, 2006; Buckner et al., 2005; Burka, 2007; Ellis et al., 2001; Evans & 
Plumridge, 2007; Jessup et al., 2010); creative therapies including art/music (Macpherson et 
al., in press; Theron, 2006); and work experience (Woodier, 2011). Length and intensity was 
very wide-ranging – from one-off sessions of 1 to 4 hours (Bloemhoff, 2006; Mu & Chang, 
2010) to weekly sessions over 2 to 3 years (Ferreyra, 2001; Woodier, 2011; see Table 1). 

Several interventions worked with the wider family system rather than just the 
individual child (Alvord & Grados, 2005; Burka, 2007; Evans & Plumridge, 2007; Ferreyra, 
2001; Gauvin-Lepage & Lefebvre, 2012; Lee et al., 2009; Morison et al., 2003; Mu & Chang, 
2010; Shapiro, 2002), and in some cases included significant others involved with the child, 
such as teachers (Ferreyra, 2001; Mears & Stevenson, 2006) and health-care practitioners 
(Lee et al., 2009; Gauvin-Lepage & Lefebvre, 2012). 

 
Given the individual nature of disability and chronic illness, it is perhaps not 

surprising that compared to interventions for typically-developing youth, articles in this 
review included a highly customised approach to meet individual levels of need (e.g., Ellis et 
al., 2001; Evans & Plumridge, 2007; Ferreyra, 2001; Gauvin-Lepage & Lefebvre, 2012; Leve 
et al., 2009; Macpherson et al., in press; Morison et al., 2003; Mu & Chang, 2010; Pelchat, 
2010; Shapiro, 2002; Theron, 2006; Woodier, 2011), often informed by a focus group or 
collaboration with the children, young people and their families (e.g., Ellis et al., 2001; 
Ferreyra, 2001; Gauvin-Lepage & Lefebvre, 2012; Macpherson et al., in press; Pelchat, 2010; 
Storch et al., 2012). By contrast, only two interventions used a universal approach at the level 
of the classroom and/or school (Firth et al., 2013; Stallard et al., 2005). One program featured 
an inclusive model of teacher training to change the whole school culture, and a coping 
program for students with dyslexia, nested within a whole-class coping program aimed at all 
students in that year (Firth et al., 2013). Whilst they excluded pupils with other types of 
reading difficulties (from lack of opportunity, learning difficulties, Asperger syndrome, 
sensory impairment, or emotional difficulties), those pupils (assuming they were present) still 
received the general whole-class coping skills intervention. Unfortunately the results of this 
well-intentioned, sustainable intervention were weak, with minimal improvement, lack of 
difference between dyslexic/non-dyslexic students at the start or end of the study, and 
observed benefits that could have been the result of the passage of time.



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Table 1: Summary of contexts, interventions and delivery (where given). (SES=SocioEconomic Status; M=Male; F=Female). 

Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

Alvord & Grados, 

2005; USA 

 

ADHD, anxiety, limited number with "mild" Asperger's, learning 

disabilities, fine-motor/gross-motor skills deficits (all) 

4-14 yrs - 24-28 sessions over 2 semesters; 

clinician facilitator 

not < average IQ or 

aggression/ antisocial 

Details: Facilitated, single-sex, goal-oriented social skills group to learn new skills; included free play, relaxation training, active parental involvement, reward system and 

homework. Outcome: Empirical data collected but not included. 

Bloemhoff, 2006; 

South Africa 

 

Behavioural and/or emotional problems (e.g., depression, anti-social 

behaviour) (all); at-risk, referred under Child Care Act 1983 

16 yrs 47 (M) One-off 4hr session; researcher 

facilitator 

 

Details: Ropes course in environment of 'safe' risk-taking and competition; followed by facilitated processing and reflection to apply learning to real life. Outcome: 

Significant increase in protective factors after course compared to before. 

Buckner et al., 

2005; USA 

 

Asthma (all); Caucasian & African American; low & moderate-high SES 12-14 yrs 12 (8F 

4M) 

3 day camp; nurses, camp staff  

Details: Residential camp including outdoor physical/leisure activities, such as canoeing and country dancing, combined with asthma education. Outcome: Increased 

resilience after camp compared to before, improvement still present at 6 months. 

Burka, 2007; 

USA 

 

Learning challenges (e.g., learning disability, ADHD) or medical 

problems (e.g., diabetes, cerebral palsy) (all) 

8-13 yrs 49 3hrs a day, 5 days a week for 3 

weeks; program staff 

 

Details: Summer program of challenging but fun activities; included individual work, arts and crafts, coping and problem-solving skills, earning non-competitive awards 

for reaching goals. Outcome: Not reported. 

Ellis et al., 2001; 

USA 

Learning, emotional, attention hyperactivity disorders (some); at-risk, 

referred from judicial/mental health services; low SES 

12-18 yrs 72 2-5 evenings; program staff, 

therapeutic recreation specialists 

Participatory 



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Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

 Details: Leisure and skills activities, individualised for youth unable to participate independently; included academic, life and stress management skills, opportunity for 

personally meaningful pursuits, community service and represent peers at youth-directed planning and strategy meetings. Outcome: Reported greater sense of self-efficacy, 

voice and self-confidence. 

Evans & 

Plumridge, 2007; 

England 

Autism spectrum, learning difficulties, hearing impairments, physical 

impairments & complex needs (all) 

5-13 yrs 47 - Social model of disability; 

awareness raising 

Details: Wide-ranging inclusive, integrated and specialist play and leisure provision, such as after-school clubs, holiday play-schemes; included specialist information and 

advice, respite, advocacy and peer support for families. Outcome: Reported increased confidence and self-esteem, reduced isolation. 

Ferreyra, 2001; 

USA 

Specific learning difficulties (e.g., dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, 

dysphasia, ADHD, motor/social perceptual learning disability) and/or 

physical disability (cerebral palsy, spina bifida, spinal cord injury, 

amputee, speech disabilities) (all); African American, Latina, Asian 

American, Native American, Caucasian; from economically 

challenged/diverse neighbourhoods 

14-21 yrs - F 1-3hrs a week during school year 

for 2 yrs; program staff with 

disabilities 

Addresses basics; 

participatory  

Details: Facilitated group and one-to-one counselling; focus group developed content and responsive curriculum including life-skills, substance use prevention, disability 

awareness/rights and identity formation; provided adult female disabled role models and help with basic living support, food, clothing and shelter. Outcome: Increased 

academic resilience, confidence and social capital, decreased substance use. 

Firth et al., 2013; 

Australia 

 

Dyslexia (some); Anglo-European; 1/3 receiving maintenance allowance 10-11 yrs 23 (8F, 

15M) 

10 x 50mins weekly; teachers  

Details: Dyslexia-specific coping skills program in addition to whole-class CBT program for all students, whole-school changes in practice (e.g., teacher training, student 

screening) and dyslexia-friendly environment (e.g., nonprint-based access to curriculum and means of expression). Outcome: Inconclusive – authors suggest measured 



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Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

improvements in locus of control and non-productive coping due to age/development. 

Gauvin-Lepage & 

Lefebvre, 2012; 

Canada 

Moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (all) Adolesc-ent 8 Nurses Collaborative with parents 

Details: Focus on recognising the knowledge and expertise of families, helping them feel better supported and understood; intervention designed and tested with the family. 

Outcome: On-going research, results not yet available. 

Irie & Tsumura, 

2011; Japan 

Learning difficulties/developmental disability (all); moderate-high SES 3-5 yrs 4 (1F 3M) ~90mins, ~monthly for 1 year; 

researcher 

 

Details: Family coping intervention through interviews with researcher. Outcome: Over time parents learned to verbalise feelings and take joint ownership of their 

children’s condition. 

Jessup et al., 

2010; Australia 

 

Blind & visually impaired (all); had met educational & developmental 

milestones 

16-24 yrs 8 (4F 4M) At least once a week  

Details: Participants’ own pre-existing leisure pursuits, hobbies and activities, including sports, volunteering, music, tutoring others and being a mentor. Outcome: 

Activities provided acceptance, supportive relationships, desirable identity, experiences of power, control and social justice, enabling them to thrive despite adversity.  

Lee et al., 2009; 

USA 

 

Mental health issues (ADHD, adjustment disorder, mood disorder, 

depression, oppositional defiant, bipolar, disruptive, impulse-control, 

dysthymia, PTSD, anxiety, Trichotillomania) (all); Caucasian, African 

American, multiracial; mostly low income; at-risk, referred by 

judicial/children’s/mental health services 

4-17 77 (27F 

50M) 

Up to 6 weeks; mental health 

workers 

 

Details: Family intervention utilising behavioural prescriptions, solution building and crisis plans, disrupting problem-maintaining behaviours within family and between 

family and services. Outcome: Significant improvements in child functioning, parental competency, family cohesion and adaptability, maintained at 6 months. 

Leve et al., 2009; Severe emotional & behavioural difficulties (all); in foster care  9-18 yrs - 6-9 months; foster parents &  



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Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

USA 

 

 multi-disciplinary team 

Details: Community home foster parents intensively trained, supervised and supported to provide positive adult support, mentoring, close supervision and consistent limit 

setting; individualised strength-building, positive interventions (e.g., social skills training, academic support, reward charts) coordinated in the home, with peers, in 

educational settings, with birth and/or adoptive family. Outcome: Improved social behaviour, placement stability and supportive attachment and peer relationships. 

Macpherson et al., 

in press; England 

 

Mental health complexities and/or learning difficulties (all)  16-25 yrs 9 (5F 4M) 10 x 4hr weekly; inclusive art 

therapist, researcher, play 

therapist 

Participatory, food 

provided 

Details: Visual arts workshops building toward end of course exhibition; included learning new arts skills, connecting communities, expressing and processing emotions, 

following a resilience curriculum; participants co-developed a practitioner resource. Outcome: Increased sense of belonging, confidence and coping with difficult feelings. 

Mears & 

Stevenson, 2006; 

New Zealand 

Special educational needs (all) 13-14 yrs 1 class 3 weeks; researcher, school staff Action research 

Details: In class curriculum including role playing, problem-solving, discussion around videos showing “risky” scenarios. Outcome: Increase in resilience after intervention 

compared to beforehand; reported increase in self-confidence, self-esteem and ability to identify and handle risky situations. 

Morison et al., 

2003; Australia 

 

Chronic moderate-severe physical illness or disability 

(metabolic/endocrine disorders, epilepsy, chronic bowel disorders, 

malignancies, central nervous system disorders, asthma, cystic fibrosis, 

cardiac disease) (all) 

0-25 yrs 82 counsellors Builds capacity 

Details: Flexible, customised interventions to accommodate needs of all family members; wide variety of activities, type, length and location; included peer mentoring, 

community education and social events; no time constraint or limits to participation. Outcome: Anecdotal, positive feedback from clients and professionals. 

Mu & Chang, 

2010; Taiwan 

Epilepsy (all), 63% also having learning difficulties 0-18 yrs 78 (31F 

47M) 

1-2 x 60-90mins; researchers Identity formation 



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Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

 Details: Nursing intervention with family to define roles and responsibilities of family members and foster family resilience; included parental needs checklist, psycho-

education, enhancing mastery and coping, and reconstructing identity. Outcome: Significant reductions in family boundary ambiguity and maternal depression. 

Pelchat, 2010; 

Canada 

 

Down Syndrome or cleft lip/palate (all) 0-18 mths 46 Researcher, perinatal care nurses Co-created with parents 

Details: Therapeutic intervention with family addressing needs at level of individual, parental, conjugal and familial/extra-familial; included forging reciprocal partnership 

between family and professionals, sharing reciprocal resources, coping skills. Outcome: Positive impacts reported by family and professionals, including increased 

confidence in their knowledge and skills. 

Shapiro, 2002; 

USA 

 

Complex, chronic health problems & developmental disabilities 

(hypotonic cerebral palsy, anaemia; learning, social and behavioural 

disabilities, memory problems, mental health problems) (all) 

13 yrs 1 (F) 1 year; clinical psychologist Collaborative with parent; 

negotiating for resources 

Details: Psychotherapy with child, parent and family to make better use of existing and new resources in multiple systems and form coherent illness narrative. Outcome: 

Improved health efficacy, communication and shared problem-solving. 

Stallard et al., 

2005; England 

 

Severe emotional problems (e.g., anxiety) (some); from area of social & 

economic deprivation, at-risk 

9-10 yrs 213 10 sessions over 1 term; school 

nurses 

 

Details: Universal CBT approach using in-class workbooks to teach relaxation, problem-solving and coping skills. Outcome: Significant improvements in anxiety and self-

esteem, reported positive classroom culture. 

Storch et al., 

2012; USA 

 

Tic disorder (Tourette’s or chronic tic disorder) with associated 

psychosocial impairment (all); Caucasian, Hispanic 

8-16 yrs 8 (2F 6M) 10 x 50mins weekly; clinical 

psychology doctoral students 

Focus group contributed 

to content 

Details: Individual CBT psychotherapy sessions; focuses on psycho-education and coping/living with tics and managing associated distress, anxiety and impairment, rather 

than trying to reduce frequency/severity or suppress. Outcome: Improvements in self-concept, anxiety and quality of life. 

Theron, 2006; Specific learning difficulties (e.g., spoken or written language, listening, secondary 6 (4F 8M) 12 x 1hr sessions over 5.5  



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Study  Children & young people Age No. Delivery Other info 

South Africa 

 

speaking, reading, writing, spelling or doing maths) (all); at-risk school months; researcher facilitator 

Details: School-based individualised program and group therapy; included art, music, CBT, resilience curriculum, visualisation and role-play. Outcome: Increased 

resilience attributes, particularly positive future orientation, compared to before intervention. 

Woodier, 2011 ; 

Scotland 

Emotional & behavioural difficulties (e.g., ADHD, prenatal alcohol/drug 

exposure) (all); looked after, school exclusion  

11-15 yrs 

 

2 (M) 

 

3hrs/week for 1-3 yrs; teacher, 

input from multi-disciplinary 

team 

 

Details: One-to-one asset-building curriculum to identify strengths, plus individual, structured voluntary work experience placement in community for academic credit. 

Outcome: Increased inclusion with school and peers, positive future orientation and responsibility for self. 

 

 



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Some of the interventions built capacity, for example the Paediatric and Adolescent 
Support Service included a parent peer mentoring scheme where parents who had “been there, 
done that” received training as volunteer mentors for other parents, acting as role models and 
gaining “recognition for their value as experienced people with much to offer others” 
(Morison et al., 2003, pp. 127–128). Having parents or young people developing and/or 
delivering training, for example in the manner of the Amaze charity in Brighton, U.K. (Hart, 
Virgo, & Aumann, 2006), and the Experience in Mind community group, also in Brighton, 
(Taylor, & Hart, 2011), enables interventions to involve the most excluded parents and young 
people, potentially makes groups more sustainable, and builds training capacity and the wider 
social capital of parents and young people.  

Noticeably, despite the important resilience-building benefits of encouraging hobbies, 
talents, and interests (e.g., Gilligan, 1999; Jessup et al., 2010), these dimensions appear to 
have been left out of most resilience-based interventions for children and young people, as we 
have found in earlier work (Hart & Heaver, 2013). Arguably, their inclusion in resilience 
programs is even more important for disabled children and young people, as they are already 
being given fewer opportunities and resources than their typically-developing peers. Funded 
programs usually come with significant resources. Using some of these to develop hobbies 
and interests could result in an impressive return on investment, laying the foundations for 
meaningful activities and job opportunities in adulthood. 

Other papers in the search that did not include an intervention but were worth 
mentioning for their strategies and models addressing specific resilience capacities in special 
education include Jones (2011), Hartley (2010), and Kourkoutas and Xavier (2010). 

Exclusion through disability-blindness and an ableist mindset 

Analysis of this data set leads us to suggest that children and young people with 
complex needs are unjustly under-represented in study samples. Our view prior to 
undertaking this review, that resilience-focused interventions seemed to exclude the very 
people who might need them the most, has been confirmed. These marginalised children and 
young people already have fewer chances and a greater need for intervention, yet some of the 
most generously funded studies continue to deliberately exclude children and young people 
with complex needs. Some studies such as repetitions of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) 
often target what are termed “sub-clinical” samples, with a preventative focus on “teaching 
skills for promoting positive experiences or coping with everyday problems, rather than 
addressing clinical levels of symptoms that might require advanced clinical training to 
address” (Kranzler, Parks, & Gillham, 2011, p. 486). A social-skills group therapy model 
excluded children and young people with “below average intellectual capability or severe 
aggression”, rather than providing additional support to sessions, on the basis that these youth 
would be antisocial, and that “placing antisocial youth together results in interventions that 
are often ineffective and may even increase the likelihood of delinquency” (Alvord, & 
Grados, 2005, p. 242). Somewhat in opposition to the research ethos the authors are 
advocating, one study took Functional Analysis, an approach designed for students with 
severe disabilities, behavioural problems, or emotional disorders, and applied it preventatively 
to children who had no identified disabilities, but who showed “mild behavioural challenges 
in regular education classrooms” (Stoiber & Gettinger, 2011, p. 689), described as talking in 
class when they shouldn’t, or not staying in their seat. 

For most studies, exclusion was more subtle, reducing the likelihood of their cohort 
including any children and young people with complex needs by: (a) using written or 



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computer-administered program materials that may be inaccessible to students with learning, 
reading, or communication difficulties (we know from experience that the concepts included 
in commonly-used resilience scales can be difficult to convey to participants with moderate 
learning difficulties, and to students in chronic pain who may not be able to concentrate or 
process much information at one time); (b) taking opportunity samples from low-risk 
mainstream schools, where disabled pupils who do attend mainstream school may still be 
absent on the day that the intervention takes place through ill-health, illegal exclusion, or lack 
of inclusive provision (e.g., Grunstein & Nutbeam, 2006); (c) using university undergraduate 
populations where students are less likely to have a moderate to severe learning difficulty 
(e.g., Stallman, 2011); (d) conducting program activities that are inaccessible or non-adapted, 
or which take place in a location inaccessible to students with physical disabilities (e.g., Ewert 
& Yoshino, 2011); or (e) conducting an intervention in a workplace (e.g., Bennett, Aden, 
Broome, Mitchell, & Rigdon, 2010) when young people with disabilities aged 16 to 25 have a 
rate of unemployment two to four times higher than those without disabilities (Burchardt, 
2005).  

Standardised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) programs may not be accessible 
for children and young people with learning difficulties. They might struggle with aspects 
such as identifying thoughts, separating thoughts from feelings, and learning and applying 
new information and concepts (Mirow, 2008). These children and young people require 
creative individual adaptation to meet their needs, such as using simple language, including 
parents/carers, and actually having a less collaborative, more directive, approach (Willner, 
2009). 

We do not mean to imply that all these studies necessarily set out to exclude children 
and young people with disabilities and complex needs, but their prevalence in the research 
evidence base suggests a level of disability blindness and an “ableist mindset” (e.g., Butler, & 
Parr, 1999; Chouinard, Hall, & Wilton, 2010), along with an absence of an “inequalities 
imagination” (Hall & Hart, 2004; Hart, Hall, & Henwood, 2003). Even when researchers are 
aware of inequality and inclusion issues, they may be guided by different definitions of an 
“inclusive” program. For example, inclusion may be achieved through additional separate 
“specialist provision” giving disabled children and young people similar opportunities to their 
non-disabled peers; additional “integrated activities” that disabled and non-disabled children 
and young people both participate in together; or supporting disabled children and young 
people to be safely integrated into mainstream provision by providing equal access to existing 
play and leisure activities (Evans, & Plumridge, 2007).  

Evans and Plumridge (2007) reported that some services actually “rais[ed] awareness 
of the needs of disabled children and attempted to change the practice of mainstream 
providers” (p. 235) through providing deaf awareness and British Sign Language training for 
mainstream services, and “tackl[ing] disabling barriers within all the spheres of children’s 
lives” (p. 231). However, overall, few interventions addressed consciousness-raising, or the 
basics, such as giving participants a decent breakfast. These arenas would be included in 
resilience interventions that took inequalities seriously. For future resilience-based 
interventions we consider that an “inequalities imagination” (Hart et al., 2003) is needed on 
the part of the designers and deliverers, to ensure that resilience-based approaches act as 
political moves against the structural and power inequality manifest in some children and 
young people’s lives, through poverty, marginalisation, unemployment, and constellated 
disadvantage (Hart et al., 2007; Hart et al., 2003; Prilleltensky & Prilleltensky, 2005). 
Addressing basic inequalities and lack of access to developmentally-appropriate resources has 
been authoritatively described as the single most important step in improving mental health 



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outcomes (Friedli, 2009; Layard, 2005), yet is rarely explicitly considered and worked with 
beyond citing contextual issues relating to the child’s social ecology, even when interventions 
target disadvantaged populations. This may partly be due to difficulty in defining what 
constitutes disadvantage, and how it is located and measured (Hart et al., 2007; Mayer, 2003;  
Prilleltensky & Prilleltensky, 2005). 

There are also other, more subtle political issues of disability rights to be considered. 
Children and young people with disabilities have been regarded as a small group that is 
difficult to visualize. But this viewpoint does not reflect reality. In Sweden about 14 to 18% 
of young people in secondary and upper-secondary school report that they have one or more 
disabilities (Brunnberg, Lindén Boström, & Persson, 2009), with 3% reporting multiple 
disabilities (Brunnberg & Olsson, 2013). The political goal for disabled children and young 
people in many countries has been “equality”, but this has in many contexts centred on 
equality in attending, for example, the same school as their non-disabled peers. Equality has 
not been a concept of quality, for example, in education or communication. Children and 
young people with disabilities have the equal right to be heard and listened to, and to be 
treated in the best way (UNICEF, 2013a). This should apply to their meaningful participation 
in research studies, both as participants and, ideally, as collaborators in the research process 
and intervention design. More than 20 years ago, Oliver (1992) made the point that disability 
research “has had little influence on policy and made no contribution to improving the lives of 
disabled people” (p. 101), and could even be described as “alienating” (p. 101) rather than 
emancipatory. It feels as though little has changed.  

In terms of balancing the cost efficiency of time and resources against helping those 
most in need, more debate needs to occur amongst researchers regarding where it is realistic 
and ethical to draw the line. Sometimes it is clear how the balance has been reached; for 
example, Storch et al.’s (2012) CBT program for young people with tic disorders was 
contextual and participatory – focusing on coping skills specific to living with tics, and 
conducting focus groups with the youths themselves to inform the content of the course. It 
was delivered via one-to-one psychotherapy sessions, making it resource-intensive. Costs 
were reduced by having doctoral students deliver the sessions, rather than more qualified 
therapists, and by keeping the program to ten weekly sessions of 50 minutes each. A 
consequence of using less experienced practitioners conducting a short program was that 
young people with more complex needs (e.g., having a “comorbid” diagnosis), who therefore 
might require a greater level of support, were excluded from participating. Providing 
intensive, contextualised, and customised interventions via experienced practitioners is 
expensive; the higher the cost, the fewer children and young people having the opportunity to 
benefit; the greater the level of customisation, the less generalisable it may be, with a reduced 
economy of scale. Funders may be more willing to award money to a marketable prevention 
program that states it will help 50 children now and could be rolled out to 500 in the future, 
than to an intervention that costs the same and will help five children with complex needs in 
the here and now. 

The political economy and market orientation of research, or “academic capitalism” 
(Barry, 2011), promotes the use of “tame” populations and means that money is usually spent 
on typically-developing children and young people with average levels of need. Research 
often focuses on those who will sit quietly and complete the measures that the researchers are 
interested in, with minimal supervision and in the fastest time. The children and young people 
who are most in need of resilience-based interventions are left out because they may need 
support to participate in the study; those support needs will need to be assessed; suitably 
qualified and experienced researchers/practitioners will need to be part of the team, or training 



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will need to be provided in order to sensitively and appropriately support participants; 
scales/measures will need to be adapted, not only in terms of presentation in a suitably 
accessible format (e.g., short sentences, easy read, or pictorial), but also in terms of concepts 
that are meaningful and relevant to the participants (e.g., not asking about activities that 
participants are unable to do), and not making assumptions (e.g., that having lots of 
friendships is necessarily beneficial or desirable to someone with autism); extra time will 
need to be built into the research project to allow for supported participation, which may also 
need co-operation and co-ordination of parent, carer or trusted adult attendance at sessions, or 
arrangement of appropriate transport and travel expenses.  

Children and young people with complex needs are less likely to form a convenient 
opportunity sample, in contrast to pupils in a large mainstream school. The authors know that 
it is immensely difficult to keep participants with learning difficulties involved in research, 
but it is politically, morally, and ethically very important. Other researchers could learn from, 
for example, the Swedish study “Life and Health” (Brunnberg & Olsson, 2013) in which 
students with different types of disabilities could read and answer the survey in sign language, 
talked language, spelling with big letters, as well as in a traditional format as text. While the 
survey was still not presented in easy-to-read text, it did however have a high response rate 
and was more inclusive than most.  

In studies where researchers do not specify the participant demographics, it is easy to 
work out that they have not included children and young people with disabilities, based on the 
description of the work, the questionnaires they used to evaluate the program, the level of 
staffing, and the lack of tailoring for individuals. Some programs are implicitly ableist, for 
example developing an exercise or physical activity-based resilience-building intervention, 
which has not, or cannot, be adapted for different needs. We are advocating a more 
transparent and reflective approach to the inclusion of disabled children and young people, 
with the hope that some balance can be achieved. One way to address exclusion might be to 
acknowledge the tensions between factors – including finances, time constraints, and funding 
body agendas – from an informed viewpoint, admitting that there are excluded populations 
and stating reasons for decisions about participants. This in itself might encourage more 
attention to be paid to what should be done differently to make research more inclusive. 

Limitations of the methodology 

This review used the WHO (2012) definition of disability, and the researchers have 
translated their interpretation of the definition into the search terms and search strategies that 
were applied. The definition, and its interpretation, will therefore both influence the results of 
the literature search (e.g., Grönvik, 2009). Iterative evolution of the inclusion criteria 
introduces a researcher bias to the choice of which studies to include, albeit informed by years 
of research and practice in this area, but this should be acknowledged reflexively. Such 
subjective influences make a literature search less replicable and more contextualised. 
However, given the area of interest, this may be appropriate, and we have tried to make 
explicit all decisional processes in our strategy. 

The articles that were included varied in the degree to which authors had engaged with 
the resilience evidence base and definitional debates. Therefore the programs included are 
diverse in their theoretical underpinnings and adherence to resilience principles, and it is 
unlikely that there was a great deal of overlap in perspectives. However this may reflect 
broader disagreements over the definition of the terms resilience and disability. Where 
possible, the authors have tried to highlight studies that take a more socio-



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ecological/inequalities view of resilience (e.g., Hart et al., 2007; Masten, 2011; Rutter, 2006; 
Ungar, 2012), rather than those focusing on individual traits or characteristics in isolation 
from contextual issues, and those with a more participatory approach, incorporating the input 
of the young people with disabilities themselves into the research process. 

Additional difficulty in finding comparable studies lies partly in the specific and 
distinct effects, restrictions, and life-courses of different types of chronic illness and disability 
(e.g., as per Shapiro (2002), steady, fluctuating, or progressive; impacting predominantly 
physical, cognitive, or sensory functioning; invoking sympathy or stigma; visible or hidden), 
which may result in different types of intervention or therapeutic approaches being selected 
for their benefits and potential fit with the individual. Categories were complex and diverse, 
and the only “population” where there was any overlap in terms of labels was “behavioural 
and emotional problems”, which is itself a broad umbrella for a range of conditions and 
severities. Imagining the interplay of the unique effects that a young person’s disability has on 
them, the context of their individual environment, their family and the available resources, 
leads to an appreciation of the enormous amount of individual difference within a group of 
children or young people participating in one specific study, let alone between studies. Trying 
to compare groups from different studies, with the massive variation in resilience-building 
approaches and activities taken, makes a review of comparable studies with comparable 
populations and programs almost impossible. It also highlights the even greater need for 
contextualised understanding of and response to the individual child’s situation, rather than 
standardised, manualised interventions aimed at large groups of typically-developing children 
and young people in mainstream settings. 

Conclusion  

Of the papers identified, only 23 met (at least in part) the inclusion criteria, including a 
robust resilience concept and basis to the intervention, and a way of measuring changes in the 
children and young people’s resilience. The 23 studies covered a variety of program content, 
setting, delivery, and children and young people. Due to the lack of evaluated, theoretically-
sound programs designed for the needs of children and young people with disabilities, the 
inclusion criteria were applied more flexibly if the intervention demonstrated solid links to 
resilience but was not evaluated, or if the intervention lacked a specific definition of resilience 
but was clearly linked to resilience capacities (e.g., self-esteem). Overall, it was difficult to 
summarise such sparse and disparate studies in a meaningful way, particularly when small 
sample sizes and analyses of varying type and quality made it challenging to draw conclusive 
or comparative results. The authors would like to encourage better research “practice”, that 
will lead to the conducting of rich, informative, and detailed research that is inclusive, 
participatory, and sustainable in its approach, and suitable to inform a realist review. Whilst 
this is a very complex goal to realise, our review has provided some evidence for the notion 
that resilience-based programs hold promise, despite design flaws, small samples, poor 
definitions, and inconsistent measurement.  

The academic publishing landscape has been dramatically changed by recent research 
council open access policies that hold grant recipients accountable to wider stakeholders and 
the general public. This may yet provide opportunities for positive developments in relation to 
the inclusion of disabled children and young people in research. Some journals suggest major 
demographic characteristics of study samples should be included in the methodology section 
of new submissions, to “provide a more complete understanding of the sample and of the 
generalisability of the findings” (American Psychological Association, 2013). The authors 
suggest that such disclosure should become mainstream within the social sciences: A 



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demographics statement that describes which disadvantaged or marginalised groups are 
included in the sample, including people who identify as having disabilities, should be 
required as part of project outputs. If no participants are described as experiencing these types 
of inequality, then a rationale should be provided by the researchers that explains why a non-
representative sample has been chosen. In addition to making this information explicit and 
publicly available, this would increase awareness and shift focus onto inequalities issues. 
Goodhart’s Law identifies that the measurement of a system usually disturbs it (McIntyre, 
2000), and the use of non-representative opportunity samples in large-scale, publicly-funded 
studies is a system most in need of some disturbance. 

The overall flavour of the resilience and disability research evidence base is of 
measuring how things are, and identifying fairly fixed characteristics of individuals which are 
associated with better outcomes. Practitioners wishing to know what they can do right now to 
help disabled children and young people make resilient moves within the context of their own 
lives, can experience the literature as frustrating, difficult to digest, and hard to learn from. 
There is often a huge gap between what research reports, and what people want to know and 
learn about when working in the messy, complexity of situated practice. The research world 
must do more to answer the questions of parents and practitioners who support children and 
young people with disabilities and complex needs. Researchers also need to think of ways to 
capture the views, needs and experiences of children and young people with disabilities to 
ensure the relevance of their interventions. Children and young people with highly complex 
needs were of specific interest to the parents and practitioners we consulted, and we can infer 
from the papers in our review that, perhaps unsurprisingly, these children and young people 
responded to high intensity, individually-customised interventions.  

 Given the high level of illegal school exclusions experienced by disabled children and 
young people in England and Wales (Contact a Family, 2013), with devastating effects on 
their basic education, coupled with the well-documented disadvantages they face throughout 
their lives, more effort should be made to focus resilience-based interventions on supporting 
children, young people, their families and schools, to undo this damaging practice. Young 
people beyond the age of 18 were rarely included in studies, therefore research and practice 
developments could target older populations who may be as, or even more, socially-excluded 
than their younger peers. Finally, it is a great irony that third-sector organisations, which are 
far less resourced than universities, are doing the most research with disabled children and 
young people (e.g., Burchardt, 2005; Contact a Family, 2013). Academics based in 
universities could, as a start, team up with these organisations to lend support in taking this 
much-needed dimension of resilience research and practice development forward.  



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