Recent research suggests that stress resilience in adolescence – how susceptible the child or young person is to stress and how well they cope with it – predicts mental and physical health in adult men.69 Low stress resilience in adolescence is found to be associated with stress and anxiety in males aged 50 and is likely to have a similar effect for women.69 Building resilience in childhood through improved health literacy might therefore have a positive impact on health and wellbeing across the life course. There is also evidence to suggest that literacy interventions might lessen the severity of depression.16