Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls the Focus of WKSU Exploradio Show

3/2/2020

Laurel Head of School Ann V. Klotz, Dr. Lisa Damour, Executive Director of Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls (LCRG) and Dr. Tori Cordiano, Director of Research of LCRG are all featured in a detailed story that aired on WKSU focused on the stress girls today feel and the research LCRG has conducted to try and help combat it.

The story highlights one particular study that took place in 2011 and had a transformative effect. Students at Laurel, along with girls at a private school in Boston, in 2011 were subjects in Boston University’s 21st Century Athenas study, a project partly inspired by the increasing suicide rate among high achieving students in the U.S.

“From that study we identified five components of resilience," said Ann Klotz, "and they can be taught and amplified in a school curriculum."

They are purpose, self-care, creativity, relationships, and growth mindset.

A growth mindset is when students develop strategies to succeed. It’s based on the well-known work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Purpose, Ann went on to say is vitally important.

In the piece Dr. Cordiano highlights how not all stress is bad stress. “We want to keep stress at healthy levels, and we want to equip girls to be able to manage it. That’s where the alignment of expectations comes in.”

Dr. Damour touches on how kids today handle the enormous level of stress.

“They miss nothing. I feel like they process better and faster and more than I remember processing and certainly that I can process now.” She goes on to say that the research center at Laurel School conveys another important message to students. “It is the most formal way and official way for the adults to transmit to the students that we don't have all the answers either.”

Damour says despite the pressures, girls today are killing it, and she has the research to show it.

Click here to listen to the full story.

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Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls the Focus of WKSU Exploradio Show

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