Resilience and Happiness Among Adults Who Attended Boarding School: A Qualitative Study

Boarding schools have a long history of having shaped the development of some of the most successful people in the UK. Attendance has long been associated with privilege and opportunity. More recently, prominent figures in the field of psychoanalysis have suggested boarding schools can limit the emotional and psychological development of their students. Despite these claims, there are many ex-boarders who report deeply valuing their boarding experience and who often send their own children to boarding school. Developments within the field of positive psychology have delineated the concept of post-traumatic growth, a period of meaningful and life-enhancing psychological change that can follow a traumatic experience. A systematic literature review and meta-ethnographic synthesis produced a theoretical model of the development of children’s resilience following highly distressing events. This study aimed to examine the experiences of individuals who attended boarding school and who viewed it as having had a positive influence on their lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight male and six female participants who reported having had a positive experience of boarding school. The data were analysed using Braun and Clark’s (2021) thematic analysis methodology. This was conducted in an inductive manner and was rooted in a critical realist epistemology. The analysis produced four key themes: ‘family relationships: contrasting perspectives’; ‘having power, control and making the choice to board’; ‘development of interpersonal skills and individual strengths’; and ‘developing life-long resilience and independence’. The findings illustrated that many factors contribute to having had a positive experience of boarding school. A particularly important one was how well the boarder was able to establish new close relationships. This appeared to influence the form of adaptation each child took to the boarding experience.