Development and validation of a scale to measure the resilience of schools: Perspectives of young people from vulnerable and challenging territories

Abstract

This article presents the development and validation of a scale for young people, which measures the resilience of schools in ensuring the educational pathways of students in vulnerable and challenging territories. This scale was developed within a national-level project, conducted in Portuguese border regions with Spain, which are peripheral contexts with economic, social, cultural, and educational disadvantages, but with locally-situated promising dynamics. Resilient schools, from an ecological perspective, are sensitive and committed to their internal and external settings. These schools act as a whole to face problem solving and risk situations, while also needing to support youth educational pathways and fulfill their role. This is particularly important in contexts with territorial disparities and specificities, as is the case of border regions. The Resilience Scale of Schools – Youth Version (RSS-Y) integrates dimensions related to schools’ focus and priorities, as well as practices and resources. Its development took into consideration that schools in vulnerable territories deal with specific constraints and fewer opportunities. In addition, this scale seeks to study the characteristics of resilience that young people identify in their schools and how they perceive their schools’ support. This quantitative scale was developed following a multi-step approach and was applied to 3,968 young people (9th to 12th grade). It comprises 17 items, rated on a five-point Likert scale to assess agreement. Statistical analysis ensure the internal consistency (Factor 1, α = .846; Factor 2, α = .845; Factor 3, α = .789) and the validity of this scale, indicating adequate psychometric properties to measure students’ perspectives on the resilience characteristics of schools. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) proposes a three-factor structure that explains 57.393% of the total variance. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicates that this model is a good fit with the data. The RSS-Y can provide an important contribution to educational research developed in more deprived territories, but also to school contexts, since it recognizes the importance of schools’ differentiated approaches and highlights characteristics that promote the resilience and quality of schools.

An examination of the effects of family, school, and community resilience on high school students’ resilience in China

“…A Chinese version of the School Resilience Scale for adolescents has yet to be created in China. Consequently, this investigation employed the Resilience Measure of Schools—Youth Version (RSS-Y) measure, which Milheiro and Marques created ( Milheiro Silva and Marques da Silva, 2022 ). The questionnaire was translated into Chinese using the back translation method.…”

Understanding the public participation of young people in border regions of mainland Portugal: youth as local development agent

“…Within such a framework, community resilience is then defined as the existence, development, and engagement of community resources by community members so that they can succeed in environments marked by change, uncertainty, unpredictability, and surprise (Magis 2010). In this way, community resilience reveals a shift in perspective from community deficits to the potential of communities to facilitate the mobilization of resources when they are available (Silva and Silva 2022).…”

“…It is argued that systems are generally stronger when more elements across more systems participate (Ungar 2018). In this sense, it is relevant to consider that even within the same system, hierarchies and questions of privilege and power amongst those participating might disturb participation (Becevic and Dahlstedt 2022), just as resources availability and access to them can interfere in the dynamics of resilience (Silva et al 2022b;Silva and Silva 2022;Ungar 2018).…”

“…Because many municipalities in mainland Portugal's border regions lack access to higher education infrastructure or even upper secondary education (Silva and Silva 2022), young people are forced to leave their communities if they wish to study for a degree. Likewise, a restricted labor market, typical of rural areas (Power 2017), prompts many of them to seek employment outside their hometowns.…”

“…This is why we resume the concept of community resilience (e.g. Silva and Silva 2022;Ungar 2018) in the theoretical framework. Further sections refer to the method of the study and its results, discussing the potential contribution of youth to thinking about and promoting policies addressing local development.…”