MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Earlier, in August, we reported on a cultural and mental toughness development programme for Chinese adolescents. One of the cohorts came to the UK.
The purpose is to prepare those young people to optimise the opportunities for university and to be able to deal with any challenges that arise.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating”, as they say and it will be some time before that occurs.
In the meantime we do need to assess whether we have made a difference to mindset and attitude which would enable the desired outcomes to arise.
To do that we used MTQPlus, the mental toughness questionnaire before and after the programme. This asses the 8 factors in the mental toughness concept, an aspect of our personality that embraces resilience and positivity/optimism.
The results were very encouraging. In general, the group improved their levels of mental toughness both in overall mental toughness as well as on each of the factors. All members of the party improved their scores.
Typically, the average level of mental toughness for 16 – 18 year olds is in the range of 4.2 – 4.5.
Interestingly the pattern of scores was similar before and after.
One parent observed: “My son joined the group to the UK and met you in the camp. It was really a wonderful experience for him……which had a noticeable positive impact on him.”.
The challenge now is to build on this.
