New research led by University of Otago researchers Damian Scarf and John Hunter shows that teenagers who go on a sea voyage display significant long-term increases in psychological resilience driven by their feeling of being accepted by members of their group.
Spirit of New Zealand under sail. Image credit: University of Otago / Spirit of Adventure Trust.
The study, published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, involved 60 participants of a voyage on board the three-masted barquentine Spirit of New Zealand and a control group of 60 Year 11 and 60 Year 12 students.
The resilience of participants was assessed one month before the 10-day voyage, then on its first day, the morning of the last day, and nine months after the voyage ended.
Social support, centrality of identity, and sense of group belonging for voyage participants were also assessed on the last day.
Dr. Scarf and co-authors found no difference between the pre-voyage resilience of the participants and the Year 11 group, but at nine months after the voyage the participants’ resilience scores were significantly higher than those of the Year 12 control group.
Analysis by the team showed that the increase in resilience could be attributed to the participants’ sense of belonging to, and acceptance by, the 10-person group they form during the voyage, whose members work closely together to undertake challenging tasks in sailing a tall-masted ship.
“The finding could help explain why previous research into the psychological effects of adventure education programs (AEPs) has shown mixed results for building and maintaining resilience,” Dr. Scarf said.
“While all AEPs incorporate stress and adversity, they may vary in how strongly they focus on fostering group belonging.”
“The finding of the importance of belonging for improving resilience is consistent with a growing body of work on the Social Cure,” he added.
“This research, to which our study contributes, demonstrates that belonging to groups and receiving high levels of social support adds considerably to people’s mental and physical health.”
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Damian Scarf et al. Somewhere I belong: Long-term increases in adolescents’ resilience are predicted by perceived belonging to the in-group. British Journal of Social Psychology, published online July 23, 2016; doi: 10.1111/bjso.12151
