Abstract Background Children growing up in low‐resource settings are at greater risk for lifelong psychiatric problems. They are both more likely to have risk factors for early psychopathology and to be less likely to seek help and engage support for these problems. Resource‐oriented therapeutic models—those that emphasise strengths of individuals and harness positive personal and social resources—may be particularly crucial in reducing the lifelong health inequalities that could arise amongst children growing up in socially deprived areas. Methods We used network analysis to investigate the use of personal (different emotion regulation (ER) strategies) and social (social connectedness, religion, recreational activities) resources of children living in East London ( N = 867, M age = 8.76 (0.95), 49% female) and their mental health outcomes using self‐ and teacher‐reported questionnaires (data collected November 2022–2023). Results We found that family, peer, and school connectedness were the most central elements of the network, whilst negative ER strategies seemed to be a part of the cluster of anxiety and depression symptoms. Conclusion Our findings highlight the importance of harnessing both internal strengths and positive social resources when thinking about intervention programmes for symptoms of emotional disorders in children growing up in deprived areas. Identifying strategies for nurturing social connectedness in children's closest environment is also crucial.
Michalek et al. (Thu,) studied this question.