Resilient Warriors: An Expressive Arts-Based Resiliency Program to Promote Rural Upper Elementary Students’ Resilience and Well-Being

Abstract

A considerable gap exists between rural and urban children in their mental health outcomes that has continued to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the critical role of school counselors in addressing this gap, we tested the effectiveness of a 10-week, expressive arts-based resiliency program, Resilient Warriors, with 46 rural elementary students. Results revealed a significant increase in students’ resilience and well-being posttest scores. We discuss practical implications for school counseling practitioners.

Keywords

expressive arts-based resiliency program resilience well-being rural children

Rural children, when compared with their urban counterparts, face unique barriers associated with accessing quality mental health care, and this poses significant risks and challenges for them to achieve optimal well-being (Hale et al., 2016; Hoover & Mayworm, 2017). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, n.d.), 61% of the locations with a mental health professional shortage are rural areas. This shortage, combined with the unique socioeconomic and cultural factors associated with rural residence, including transportation issues, higher poverty, and geographic isolation, make accessing mental health services more challenging for rural children (CDC, 2022). The lack of access to these services contributes to worse mental health outcomes in rural children compared with their urban peers (Kenney & Chanlongbutra, 2020; National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, 2015). Research statistics indicate that rural children are more likely than their urban counterparts to display greater levels of anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems (Health Resources and Services Administration, 2020), have a parent with poor mental health, report higher numbers of adverse childhood experiences, and live in a low-resource neighborhood (Crouch et al., 2020). This considerable gap between rural and urban children’s mental health has been exacerbated since the outbreak of COVID-19 (Masonbrink & Hurley, 2020).

Schools in rural areas play a vital role in integrating student mental health services and support into the education system. Following a strengths-based, preventative approach, school counselors design and deliver a comprehensive school counseling program to provide evidence-based, data-driven, tiered services that promote student social/emotional competence, enhance wellness, and reduce adverse mental health outcomes across the United States, particularly in the most vulnerable communities with limited access to quality mental health support, including those in rural settings (Hoover & Mayworm, 2017).

Consistent with the strengths-based youth development perspective, resilience theory offers a positive approach to working with students, focusing on bolstering individual strengths, resiliency, well-being, and optimal functioning (Masten et al., 2008). This approach also supports the essential role of school counselors by facilitating students’ social/emotional development and future success (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2019). Defined as the capability to cope with challenges and adapt to new circumstances, protecting the individual from the negative outcomes of adversity, resilience is a dynamic process that evolves as a part of healthy human development (Griffith, 2019; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012). The process of responding to adversity depends on the activation of available resources, including attributes at the individual level (e.g., healthy coping skills and help seeking), relational level (e.g., having a reliable caregiver), and community context (e.g., community-based social support), all protective factors that promote resilient functioning in children (Fenwick-Smith et al., 2018; Masten & Cicchetti, 2016; Wright et al., 2013). Therefore, the process is not a static characteristic of an individual but rather relies on the interaction between intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual influences (Masten, 2018). Recognizing the dynamic interactions among these factors, research suggests that, for all children, fostering intrapersonal resilience can function as a protective shield as they move through life (Fenwick-Smith et al., 2018).

Research has identified numerous resiliency attributes in individuals, and many of these qualities are learnable (Gilham et al., 2013; Moore & Woodcock, 2017). According to resilience theory, all children, regardless of risk or current mental health status, can benefit from support in developing effective resiliency skills (Fenwick-Smith et al., 2018). As a primary learning and social environment, schools have immense potential to build resilience in children starting in the early years (Gilham et al., 2013; Masten & Barnes, 2018). School counselors are uniquely positioned to teach students resiliency skills. Promoting resilience compels a proactive and empowering stance, emphasizing assets and resources, which is consistent with the school counselor’s preventative, strengths-based approach (Griffith, 2019). Further, focusing on strategies to promote children’s resilience is particularly relevant in the current climate, given the potential mental health burden of COVID-19 (Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020; Stark et al., 2020).

A resiliency curriculum infused into the school counseling program and targeting all students can offer a unique approach to positively impact academic success and youth development (Merrell, 2010). To effectively deliver such a curriculum, school counselors need to think innovatively and consider integrating creative techniques, such as expressive arts, into their programs (Broach et al., 2016; Cheng, 2015; Degges-White & Colon, 2014; Van Velsor, 2013). Expressive arts—primarily art making, music, dance and movement, and drama—offer countless ways to promote student social/emotional development in children (Cheng, 2015). Using metaphorical symbols and facilitating playful and experiential involvement, this creative approach enriches creativity and imagination, provides feelings of safety, and helps children explore and process their emotions and experiences (Buchalter, 2009; Gil, 2011; Kim, 2015; Sitzer & Stockwell, 2015). For example, interventions utilizing drawing, journaling, movement, and music have been linked to increased self-awareness, emotion regulation, and acceptance in youth (Coholic & Eys, 2016; Klassen, 2017; Milligan et al., 2016). Expressive arts have also been utilized in a didactic manner to teach children abstract concepts (e.g., using finger traps to illustrate the concepts of acceptance and resistance; Ruskin et al., 2017). Further, Coholic et al. (2020) reported that the enjoyment created through expressive arts promoted children’s engagement with a mindfulness-based intervention and was consistently reported as one of the favorite aspects of the program. Given this powerful impact, school counselors are encouraged to find creative ways to incorporate this effective tool into their comprehensive programs (e.g., mandala mornings; Cook et al., 2016).

Taken together, integrating a resiliency curriculum into the school counseling program and teaching the curriculum using expressive arts techniques presents a unique combination to promote resiliency skills among children. A growing body of evidence supports the implementation of expressive arts-based resiliency programs (Forrest-Bank et al., 2016; Kim, 2015; Sitzer & Stockwell, 2015). However, most research has examined impacts on mental health problems (e.g., trauma) with adolescents in clinical and community settings. For example, Sitzer and Stockwell (2015) found that implementing a 14-week, art making-based resiliency program resulted in a higher level of perceived functioning, communication skills, emotional expression, and resilience in students with trauma history. Similarly, at-risk middle school students who participated in a 4-week, poetry-focused, community-based resiliency program reported a positive change in their academics, social competence, and multicultural attitudes (Forrest-Bank et al., 2016).

Rationale

Given the scarcity of research available on the efficacy of school-based, expressive arts-focused, preventative programming among children and the unique mental health challenges and barriers rural children face, combined with their limited access to creative social/emotional interventions, the current quasiexperimental study aimed to contribute to the evidence base by examining the impact of an expressive arts-based resiliency curriculum named Resilient Warriors on rural upper elementary students’ resilience and well-being. The Resilient Warriors program is a research-informed curriculum designed by a former school counselor and counselor educator based on the characteristics commonly associated with resiliency (Gilham et al., 2013; Griffith, 2019; Masten & Barnes, 2018; Neenan, 2009; Wu et al., 2013; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012). The guiding research question for this study was: To what extent can the expressive arts-based resilience program Resilient Warriors promote resilience and well-being among rural upper elementary students?

Method

Participants

Out of 58 students enrolled in a rural elementary school in the Midwestern United States who participated in the Resilient Warriors program, 46 consented to participate in the study. In this sample, 24 participants were boys (52.2%) and 22 participants were girls (47.8%), with a mean age of 9.43 (SD = .94) years. All the respondents self-identified as White. Most of the participants were fourth-graders (n = 20, 43.5%) followed by students in third (n = 16, 34.8%) and fifth grades (n = 10, 21.7%). Using the G*Power analysis program (Faul et al., 2007), we determined a minimum number of 27 participants to be necessary to detect a moderate effect size given the probability parameters (α = .05, β = .80). Based on this finding, the sample of 46 participants in the current study is sufficient to explain the relationships between the quasi-independent variable and dependent variables.

Measures

The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC; Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007; Connor & Davidson, 2003) is a 10-item scale that measures an individual’s ability to thrive despite adversity. Respondents rate items on a scale from 0 (not true at all) to 4 (true nearly all the time). The maximum score participants can obtain from this scale is 40, with higher scores representing a greater sense of resiliency skills. A preliminary evaluation of the CD-RISC’s psychometric properties in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 1743; M_age = 18.8) supported its internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and divergent validity (Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007). A growing body of research has confirmed the CD-RISC’s applicability to various child populations, including Chinese child earthquake survivors (Fu et al., 2014) and Canadian children with concussion and orthopedic injury (Durish et al., 2018). Internal consistency among scores in our sample was within the good range (α_pre = .80; α_post = .78).

The Stirling Children’s Well-being Scale (SCWS; Liddle & Carter, 2015) is a 13-item instrument developed to measure psychological well-being in children. Out of 13 items, three monitor social desirability bias. The remaining 10 items assess two dimensions of well-being: positive emotional state and positive outlook. Respondents rate items on a scale from 0 (never) to 4 (all the time). The scores range between 0 and 40, with higher scores representing a greater level of perceived well-being. Liddle and Carter (2015) reported satisfactory internal consistency reliability (α = .85) and test-retest reliability (r = .80). Internal consistency among scores in our sample was within the good range (α_pre = .92; α_post = .91).

Intervention

The first author, a former school counselor and counselor educator with extensive training and experience in the use of play and expressive arts-based interventions in elementary-aged students, developed the Resilient Warriors program. The content explores the characteristics of resilient warriors and promotes resiliency skills, including goal setting, emotional competence, problem solving and decision-making, positive outlook, adaptive coping, social competence, personal competence, and sense of humor (Gilham et al., 2013; Griffith, 2019; Masten & Barnes, 2018; Neenan, 2009; Wu et al., 2013; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012; see Table 1). Sense of humor was infused into the entire program using three age-appropriate weekly jokes. The school counselor delivered each lesson in a 30-minute classroom format once per week for 10 weeks. Lessons were structured according to the following format: (a) opening and linking the topic to the characteristics of a resilient warrior, (b) exploration of the topic, (c) completion of the expressive arts-based activities, (d) a small- and/or large-group discussion to process students’ experiences, (e) review of the lesson, and (f) jokes of the week.

Table 1.

Definition of the Resilient Warriors Program Components.

Component	Definition
Goal setting	A powerful process to help students think about their future and develop an action plan designed to motivate and guide them toward goals and educational aspirations; this is associated with a sense of purpose and future-oriented mindset (Gilham et al., 2013; Kim, 2015; Masten & Barnes, 2018;)
Emotional competence	Identification and expression of emotions, understanding the physical signs that they are experiencing a certain emotion, and having specific and diverse skills to address and cope with the specific emotion with which they are dealing (Gilham et al., 2013; Graziano et al., 2007; Hromek, 2004)
Problem solving and decision-making	A skill that requires critical thinking, creativity, and flexibility to recognize the nature of the problem, develop realistic options, and make a choice using judgment to solve the problem. (Gilham et al., 2013; Griffith, 2019).
Positive outlook	A positive sense of future or optimism and the expectation for good outcomes
Adaptive coping	The ability to apply behavioral or psychological techniques utilized to reduce or overcome stress (Feder et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2013)
Social competence	The ability to identify the social support system and seek help when needed (Gilham et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2013)
Personal competence	Self-efficacy, a positive view of the self or identity and the recognition of abilities and positive characteristics (Gilham et al., 2013; Griffith, 2019; Masten & Barnes, 2018)
Sense of humor	The ability to perceive, express, and appreciate what is comical and share the laughter with others (Wu et al., 2013)

Session 1 included an introduction to the resiliency and adversity concepts, a review of resilient warriors’ characteristics, and completion of the Bridge Drawing activity. To complete this activity, all students were first instructed to draw two big circles on their posters. On the left circle, they drew an image representing their self-perception, and on the right circle, they drew an image presenting the resilient warrior they want to be. Afterward, they drew a bridge to connect the circles to instill a sense of purpose and hope. Session 2 focused on exploring the goal setting concept by discussing a quote from Alice in Wonderland, reviewing SMART goals, and completing the Vision Board activity (Degges-White & Colon, 2014).

Session 3 involved an introduction to feelings and completion of Color Song and Feelings in My Heart activities, followed by small- and large-group discussions to help students identify and express their emotions. To complete the Color Song activity, students listened to a song that included a specific color (e.g., Pink Panther Theme Song) and were asked to paint their feelings associated with the color using watercolors. A discussion about the relationship between feelings and colors followed the completion of this activity. In the Feelings in my Heart activity, students identified three to six feelings they have often experienced during the day or week at school and chose colors that represent each feeling. Students then colored a heart-shaped print based on how much they have felt that emotion.

Sessions 4 and 5 transitioned to problem solving and decision-making. Specifically, Session 4 included the use of Play-Doh and rocks to explore how we have problems like Play-Doh, where we have the power to change things, and problems like rocks that we cannot change. Students then completed the In or Out of My Control intervention by tracing their hands on a paper and writing problems they can control inside their hands (e.g., missing assignments) and problems they cannot control outside their hands (e.g., the pandemic). Session 5 involved an introduction to effective problem-solving steps and a Problem-Solving Tree, followed with a practice via the use of nursery rhymes (Griffith, 2019) and school-related real-life problems.

Session 6 facilitated the development of a positive outlook with the introduction to the optimism and pessimism concepts and practice via school-related scenarios (e.g., forgetting an assignment at home and seeing two peers whispering). Students then completed the Sunny or Stormy activity (Griffith, 2019) by choosing a problem and writing or drawing about positive (sunny) and negative (stormy) aspects of the selected problem. Following this activity, each student created their own Positive Outlook Poster using quotes or identifying a motto as a reminder to look on the bright side. Sessions 7 and 8 transitioned to promoting adaptive coping skills with the use of rain and umbrella metaphors. The coping skills included coloring, journaling, breathing, dancing, grounding, drawing a happy place, and self-affirmation. Students practiced mandala coloring, basic deep breathing (e.g., smell the flower and blow the candle), dancing (e.g., disco yoga from Cosmic Kids), grounding (e.g., five senses), and self-affirmation (e.g., Count Your Rainbows), and created their own coping toolbox using an Umbrella cutout.

Session 9 focused on the theme of social competence and encouraged students to identify individuals in their social network system from whom they could seek help. Students completed an adapted version of the String of Hearts activity (Karst & Wyss, 2019). For this activity, students listed the names of three to five people who love and support them and whom they can easily count on. For each person on the list, they chose a heart shape cutout from craft fabric in a range of colors and sizes that would represent their connection. On each heart shape, they wrote the individual’s name and drew a symbol representing them. After writing their own name on one of the hearts and placing it in the middle, students connected all those hearts using string or pipe cleaners. Finally, the last session, Session 10, was dedicated to the theme of personal competence in which students had an opportunity to review all the resilient warrior’s skills and created their Resiliency Shield of strengths (e.g., their skills, positive character traits, and resources) using a variety of art media. At the conclusion of the program, students shared what they most and least liked about the program and received a certificate of Resilient Warrior. Table 2 presents an overview of the Resilient Warriors classroom lessons, including the topics and objectives for each week alongside expressive arts delivery methods.

Procedures

We secured institutional review board approval from the first author’s university (at the time of this study) and were granted permission from the participating school’s district superintendent. The school was recruited through convenience sampling. All students in the upper grades received the Resilient Warriors curriculum as a part of the comprehensive school counseling program. All third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students attending the school in person were eligible to participate in the data collection. A week before the classroom delivery, participants were identified through assent and parental consent activities. Students with parental consent completed a brief demographic questionnaire and preintervention administration of the CD-RISC and SCWS. Students completed the 10-session Resilient Warriors program by participating in weekly lessons. Following the conclusion of the program, the same participants completed a postintervention administration of the same measures.

To standardize treatment and minimize variability in lesson delivery, the second author—the building school counselor at the time of this study—delivered all lessons, and the third author—a graduate school counseling student at the time of this study—assisted with facilitating the group discussions. Both the building school counselor and graduate student had been trained in the use of creative interventions with children. They also had a training session and weekly meetings with the first author on the effective delivery of the Resilient Warriors program. Based on recommendations regarding the delivery of elementary counseling classroom lessons (Erford, 2015), we matched the intervention session delivery to that of the existing classroom lesson delivery: 30-minute sessions delivered in the classroom once per week for a total of 10 sessions. Delivery included a combination of direct instruction and participation in expressive arts-based activities followed by small- and large-group discussions. While engaging students in those activities and discussions, the school counselor followed the COVID-19 school safety measures for K–12 schools (CDC, 2021), such as wearing a mask and keeping at least six feet of distance. Therefore, all students received a box of art and craft materials (e.g., oil pastels, crayons, markers, construction papers, watercolors, googly eyes, poster boards, play-doh, and rocks) because frequent disinfection of objects touched by multiple students was not practical. The lessons centered on understanding resilience and adversity, goal setting, emotional competence, problem solving and decision-making, positive outlook, adaptive coping, social competence, personal competence, and sense of humor, and reflected key social/emotional and academic standards from the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success (ASCA, 2021).

Study Design and Data Analysis

We used a single-group, pretest-posttest, within-subjects quasiexperimental design to test the effectiveness of an expressive arts-based resiliency curriculum, Resilient Warriors. In this quantitative study, participants served as their own control. In this design, the resiliency curriculum delivered via expressive arts techniques served as a quasi-independent variable; upper elementary students’ self-report data on the resilience and well-being measures were the dependent variables. We performed paired-samples t tests to identify statistically significant differences in scores on the CD-RISC and SCWS with significance limits adjusted using the Bonferroni correction (α/k = adjusted alpha; .05/2 = .025). We computed effect size (d) to estimate the magnitude and direction of changes from pre- to posttest using Watson et al.’s (2016) guidelines: .20 for small, .50 for medium, and .80 for large. Further, we computed a bivariate correlation to identify the relationship among gain scores for self-ratings of the CD-RISC and SCWS using the conventions (.10 for small, .30 for medium, and .50 for large) reported by Swank and Mullen (2017).

Table 2.

Resilient Warriors Classroom Lesson Overview.

Timeline	Topic and objective	Expressive arts delivery methods
Week 1	Topic: Understanding resiliency and adversity	Art making
Week 1	Objective: Students will define the concepts of resiliency and adversity and describe their self-image and Resilient Warrior.	Art making
Week 2	Topic: Goal setting	Art making
Week 2	Objective: Students will understand and visualize personal goal achievement.	Art making
Week 3	Topic: Emotional competence	Dance and movement; art making
Week 3	Objective: Students will identify the intensity of their emotions and situations that might evoke various feelings.	Dance and movement; art making
Week 4	Topic: Problem solving	Art making
Week 4	Objective: Students will identify the problems they can control and cannot control and acknowledge their power to choose an action.	Art making
Week 5	Topic: Problem solving and decision making	Art making; music; dance and movement
Week 5	Objective: Students will practice the steps of solving problems and making decisions.	Art making; music; dance and movement
Week 6	Topic: Positive outlook	Art making; drama
Week 6	Objective: Students will define the concepts of optimism and pessimism, practice optimism in school-related scenarios, and develop a life motto for a positive outlook.	Art making; drama
Week 7	Topic: Adaptive coping	Art making; music; dance and movement
Week 7	Objective: Students will practice expressive arts-based coping strategies to help calm down during tough times.	Art making; music; dance and movement
Week 8	Topic: Adaptive coping 2	Art making
Week 8	Objective: Students will create their coping toolbox with self-selected coping strategies.	Art making
Week 9	Topic: Social competence	Art making
Week 9	Objective: Students will identify at least three individuals in their social support system to seek help during tough times.	Art making
Week 10	Topic: Personal competence and termination	Art making
Week 10	Objective: Students will express their resiliency skills and qualities and their personal gains from the Resilient Warriors program.	Art making

Results

Data were screened for missing values and outliers. First, we applied available item analysis (Parent, 2013) to manage missing data. All participants (N = 46) had complete data, and missing values represented less than 1% of the total dataset. The Little’s MCAR test suggested the pattern of missing completely at random for the sample (χ² (205) = 3.31, p > .05).

Results of paired-samples t tests revealed significant increases in students’ self-reported resilience and well-being posttest scores at the end of the intervention when compared with their pretest scores (see Table 3). First, findings on the CD-RISC indicated a statistically significant increase in students’ self-reported resilience scores from pre- to posttest, t (45) = –6.60, p < .001, d = 1.06 (95% confidence interval [CI] [–0.22, 2.35]), which is indicative of large effect size. These findings illustrate an improvement of about 106% of a standard deviation (more than one standard deviation improvement) among participants completing the program. The increase in the CD-RISC scores pre- to posttest represents a meaningful positive change in resilience, which may serve as a protective factor when youth face challenges.

Table 3.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Results of Paired t Tests by Resilience and Well-being.

Measure	Pretest		Posttest		t (45)	d
Measure	M	SD	M	SD	t (45)	d
CD-RISC	24.09	7.32	30.78	5.27	–6.60	1.06
SCWS	27.69	8.30	32.43	6.65	–5.12	.64

Note. N = 46. *p < 001.

CD-RISC = Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale; SCWS = Stirling Children’s Well-being Scale.

The paired-sample t test on the SCWS indicated that the Resilient Warriors program was also associated with significant positive changes in participants’ perceived well-being (see Table 3). After accounting for the Bonferroni corrections, the t test was statistically significant, t (45) = –5.12 p < .001, d = .64 (95% CI [–0.88, 2.16]), and indicative of medium effect size. These findings illustrate an improvement of about 64% of a standard deviation among participants completing the program. The increase in SCWS scores pre- to posttest suggests increased psychological well-being, indicating a greater sense of positive mental health among participants. Correlations between CD-RISC and SCWS gain scores (M = 6.70, SD = 6.88; M = 4.74, SD = 6.28, respectively) resulted in a statistically significant relationship (r = .55, p < .001), indicative of a large effect size and association between scores.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for an expressive arts-based resiliency program, Resilient Warriors, to influence perceived resilience and well-being in rural children. Toward this goal, we applied a pretest-posttest, single-group quasiexperimental design to assess the efficacy of this program on self-reported CD-RISC and SCWS scores in a sample of rural elementary students in the Midwestern United States. The resiliency curriculum was designed to bolster resilience and well-being in this group by strengthening protective factors, such as a repertoire of coping and problem-solving skills. This curriculum included eight of the most frequently cited resiliency qualities that are transferable to students and could be taught by school counselors. These qualities are goal setting, emotional competence, problem solving and decision-making, positive outlook, adaptive coping, social competence, sense of humor, and personal competence (Gilham et al., 2013; Griffith, 2019; Masten & Barnes, 2018; Neenan, 2009; Wu et al., 2013; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012). We chose expressive arts-based techniques to deliver the curriculum and teach students coping skills (e.g., mandala coloring and journaling). Combining a resiliency curriculum with expressive arts provided students with ample opportunity to creatively explore their goals, problem-solving skills, and optimism, and develop intrapersonal and interpersonal sources for strength, support, and adaptive coping. Further, arts-based interventions enabled students to experience emotional safety and express their feelings symbolically through various nonconventional media and techniques.

Supporting the study hypothesis, the study results indicated positive improvements from pre- to posttest scores on the CD-RISC and SCWS and validated the utilization of the Resilient Warriors program in the development of resilience and well-being in rural children. More specifically, the significant improvement from pre- to postintervention provides preliminary support that the intervention may have helped rural children manage their emotions; create a sense of awareness about their strengths and social support system; develop faith in their capabilities to achieve their goals and cope with stressors; enhance their positive mood, calmness, and satisfaction with life; and create a sense of hope for a better future. These findings are consistent with the previous research literature that explored the impact of art interventions with resiliency themes among youth with social/emotional problems in clinical or community settings (Forrest-Bank et al., 2016; Kim, 2015; Sitzer & Stockwell, 2015). Although most of the previous studies to date have focused on enhancing positive outcomes among youth who were targeted for early intervention in response to the observation of specific symptomatology (Forrest-Bank et al., 2016), the present study contributes to the growing literature suggesting that all children are likely to benefit from the Resilient Warriors curriculum when integrated into the school counseling program. This preventative program may serve as a protective resource to promote the possession of positive characteristics and skills in children that enable them to adapt to hardships and increase awareness and use of personal and social resources to enhance adaptive coping. In line with previous research, this program may also contribute to long-term positive outcomes in children, such as social competence, multicultural attitudes, self-acceptance, and academic achievement (Coholic & Eys, 2016; Forrest-Bank et al., 2016; Klassen, 2017; Milligan et al., 2016). Furthermore, rural children who may have experienced adverse mental health outcomes due to the exposure to increased risk factors might find a notable protective impact from involvement in the Resilient Warriors program. When integrated into the school counseling program, interventions have potential to prevent the development of pathology without targeting specific problems. In alignment with the school counselor role, this perspective emphasizes strengths instead of deficits and focuses on positive development despite exposure to risks (Masten & Barnes, 2018).

The study outcomes yield several implications for elementary school counselors who are interested in creative, strengths-based interventions. Given the evidentiary support, school counselors may adapt and integrate the Resilient Warriors curriculum into their comprehensive program to deliver the lessons to all students. In this practice, we encourage school counselors to adhere to the themes and qualities of Resilient Warriors to create a culture and common language among students. School counselors may also consider using the curriculum as a targeted intervention to develop resilience, coping skills, and well-being among referred students. For concepts retention, application, and meaningful reinforcement, school counselors can collaborate with teachers and parents to create activities and follow-up methods outside of the intervention. Finally, school counselors can use data collected during Resilient Warriors applications for accountability reporting practices and outcome data metrics, such as office referrals.

In conclusion, the resilience curriculum provided evidence that using expressive arts techniques can engage children in a process that is enjoyable, positive, meaningful, and creative. Many rural children need services that are not accessible to them. Considering their developmental level, traditional counseling can be limited for addressing and responding to their social/emotional needs. Group programs such as Resilient Warriors that are developed based on creative, nontraditional techniques (Cheng, 2015; Degges-White & Colon, 2014) can offer rural children a preventative type of service that could help build foundational skills that are imperative for promoting their resilience, well-being, and coping so they can thrive despite adversity.

Limitations and Future Recommendations

Although our study has provided preliminary evidence about the improvements associated with the Resilient Warriors program, it has some important limitations. First, we employed a single-group, quasiexperimental research design, lacking random assignment and a control group, which resulted in the study being susceptible to threats to internal validity, such as the novelty effect (Privitera, 2020). Therefore, we encourage future researchers to implement a true experimental design to explore causal attributions related to the intervention effect. Second, our statistical analyses were dependent on the use of self-reported data; future researchers may incorporate other data (e.g., behavioral observations, teacher-completed surveys, and outcome data) to conduct a more comprehensive examination. A further limitation was that the measurement of dependent variables reflected student perceptions given a certain time frame. Future research should measure resiliency skills development and well-being longitudinally across multiple data collection methods. This longitudinal data collection could also target long-term outcomes, such as multicultural attitudes and academic achievement. Third, our sample size was small and consisted of participants who identified as White and attended a rural school in the Midwestern United States, thereby limiting the representativeness of urban and diverse samples. Although employing a small sample size design is appropriate in the preliminary testing of interventions (Privitera, 2020), further evaluation of this program with larger, diverse samples is recommended to promote a more nuanced understanding of the program’s impact in association with culture-specific variables. Fourth, we implemented the program following the COVID-19 school safety measures and CDC guidelines for K–12 schools; therefore, further research is needed to test the impact of the program post pandemic. Last, although a research team conducted this study, the first author developed and contributed to the evaluation of the Resilient Warriors program, which may have resulted in researcher bias. Thus, further research evidence is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this program in elementary-aged children.

Conclusion

This study provides compelling support for using the expressive arts-based resiliency program Resilient Warriors with elementary students to foster their resilience and well-being, especially among those living in more vulnerable areas, including rural settings. This study also suggests that all children may benefit from the expressive arts-based resiliency lessons when incorporated into comprehensive school counseling programs. We invite elementary school counselors to find creative ways to integrate Resilient Warriors into their programs to build intrapersonal resources and interpersonal sources of strength within children and promote their adaptive resiliency strategies and skills that may help them cope with adversity. This is especially relevant today, given the mental health burden of the COVID-19 pandemic (Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020; Stark et al., 2020).

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by the University of Wisconsin-Stout Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

ORCID iD

Hulya Ermis-Demirtas

Author Biographies

Hulya Ermis-Demirtas, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Counselor Education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, IL. Email: Hu-Ermis@neiu.edu

Jami Donath is an elementary school counselor in the School District of Clear Lake, in Clear Lake, WI.

Laura Weber is a middle school counselor in the STEM Institute of Fond du Lac School District in Fond du Lac, WI. Nicole Bradley, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Counseling, at Walden University.

Nicole Rizzo is a former K–5 teacher and a licensed school counselor in the state of Wisconsin currently in private practice.

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