ABSTRACT
Positive psychology and feminism both remind us to focus not just on girls’ vulnerabilities, but their strengths. Girls use a range of coping strategies to deal with the particular challenges they face, such as discrimination and harassment, and the appropriateness of certain strategies depends on the situation. Coping is one factor contributing to resilience, which can be conceptualised as a dynamic process, with its limits determined by the sociocultural environment. Girls are often more resilient than boys, but their resilience and wellbeing become compromised in adolescence. Mental health promotion, prevention and therapy often focus on the individual, aiming to build up coping skills, resilience and, in a feminist sense, empowerment. However, the risk factors inherent in the sociocultural environment that undermine the mental health and wellbeing of girls need to be addressed too.
