Promoting Psychological Flexibility for Resilience and Lasting Behavior Change in System Involved Youth and Families

Megan Lipsett

Training Description

Thoughts and emotions that arise in times of stress inform long-term behaviors (Hayes et al., 1999), which are themselves influenced by a person’s social, psychological, and situational context. ‘Psychological flexibility’ refers to a person’s ability to respond to situations in ways that facilitate their pursuit of their most valued life goals despite the presence of distress (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). A growing body of research demonstrates that this ability leads to psychological benefits and adaptive behavior change (Doorley et al., 2020), possibly due to promoting resilience to stress (Madison, 2021). Parental psychological flexibility has also been found to reduce the risk of adolescent behavioral difficulties (Burke, 2011). Foster and systems-involved youth experience significant rates of social and environmental stressors, along with mental health challenges, and so establishing healthy behaviors can be difficult. This training will introduce the importance of psychological flexibility for system involved youth and…