Boosting Your Family’s Wellbeing in Year 3 of the Pandemic With the SEARCH Framework

Family wellbeing has been disrupted through the pandemic. Use the SEARCH Framework to help everyone boost their wellbeing, especially your kids.

We’re entering year 3 of the pandemic. I don’t know about you but my family has been in lockdown for a total of 262 days through multiple rounds of restrictions the past 2+ years..

Do you know what that means?

It means whether we like it or not, we’re spending more time with each other.

As parents, this could be a great opportunity for us to improve our own and our children’s wellbeing.

The question is, how can you boost wellbeing despite the pandemic?

The SEARCH Framework can be a very useful tool.

In this article, we’ll explore how you can use this framework to boost the wellbeing of your family despite the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

Why Your Home Needs SEARCH

What exactly is the SEARCH Framework?

I created this framework based on my published analysis of thousands of psychology studies. These studies allowed me to identify six pathways that can help young people reach their full potential mentally, socially, physically, and academically.

The word SEARCH, in fact, represents the six pathways: Strengths, Emotional Management, Attention and Awareness, Relationships, Coping, and Habits and Goals.

Schools from different countries like Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, India, Hong Kong, and New Zealand have created their respective wellbeing curriculum based on the SEARCH framework. This allowed them to help students develop their psychological competencies - specifically the ability to adapt to stressful situations.

The framework has also helped teachers implement positive education interventions focused on their wellbeing during the pandemic. This put students in a better position to thrive and benefit even in the midst of a crisis.

During the pandemic, I studied how the SEARCH framework helps students during difficult times.

In published research conducted with my colleagues Dr. Kelly Allen and Dr. Gokmen Arslan, we asked students to rate how well they were taught positive education skills before the pandemic. We discovered that those who were taught the SEARCH framework were able to adjust and adapt to remote learning and move back on to campus more effectively. If the SEARCH framework is effective in helping students adapt and cope during the pandemic, you can also use it to help boost your child’s wellbeing.

The SEARCH Pathways

To understand how you can use the SEARCH framework to improve the wellbeing of your child, let’s go through the 6 pathways in detail.

Strengths

The Strengths pathway focuses on character strengths and teaching young people how they can express and use them properly.

Here, your child can learn what their natural moral qualities are - the positive aspects of their personality. Learning how to use their strengths can positively impact their wellbeing, life satisfaction, resilience, and achievement.

Among the ways you can work this at home is by downloading strength games for free from my Strength Exchange website. You can choose between VIA-ingo or Strengths and Ladders.

You can also pick a “strength for the day” and see if you and your child can choose a movie with the same theme. Then, you can discuss how the characters used their strengths.

Emotional Management

The Emotional Management pathway is all about finding positive ways to deal with feelings, moods, and emotions.

But it’s not about teaching your child how to suppress their negative emotions. Rather, it’s more about helping your child find a way to understand and manage these emotions This can also teach your child how to recognise their feelings and potential triggers.

One way to practice this at home is by doing a mood music playlist. For instance, if one of your children needs to lift their spirits up, you have a playlist ready for that.

You can also do emotional charades. Print or write a list of emotions and have family members choose a random emotion to act out for others to guess. This can help your child recognise different emotions.

Attention and Awareness

The Attention and Awareness pathway focuses on maintaining awareness of where our attention lies. This teaches your child to consciously control their focus. And it can also help them be more attentive in school, homework, and chores around the house.

An activity you can use to practice this is through mindful moments. Encourage your child to take the time to breathe slowly while washing their hands. Or, every time you come together as a family, you can focus on specific things together, like mindful eating.

Relationships

The Relationships pathway helps kids polish their social skills to allow them to form positive relationships. With a strong relationship, it can be easier for your child to feel a sense of belonging and connection.

One activity that you can do is called relationship rituals. You can capitalise on rituals you already have, like book reading or bathtime. Use it as a bonding moment with your child.

Or, you can help your child practice gratitude towards people around them. Ask them to list 3 things that they are grateful for because of that person.

Coping

The Coping pathway involves the ability to deal with adversities in life. This can teach your child to deal with stressful situations, thus allowing them to develop resiliency.

To help your child develop this, you can use the silver linings activity. Just draw some clouds on paper. Then ask every member of the family to write inside their cloud a difficulty they are experiencing due to the pandemic continuation and then on the outside/lining of the cloud write an upside to the  experience they’re going through. This allows them to practice looking at the silver lining every time they go through a challenging situation.

Habits and Goals

Habits and Goals are all about developing the right habits that’ll help your child achieve their goals. The aim is to give your child a sense of purpose and forward direction.

To work on this, you can guide your child to identify a BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal). Then, you can encourage them to think about the habits required to help them reach it. You can also help your child practice how to make that positive habit stick.

Your Child Can Thrive Despite the Situation

Although the pandemic is dragging on, the negative effects on your family can be curtailed.

As a parent, you can use this as an opportunity to boost the wellbeing of your child. That way, they can have more positive feelings and experiences during future uncertain situations. SEARCH is a way to future-proof your kids!

To help you boost their wellbeing, use the SEARCH framework. Focus on the six pathways that can help them reach their full potential mentally, socially, physically, and academically.

If you want to learn more about how you can use positive psychology in your parenting, join my Strength Switch - Online Positive Family Program.