Educational Resilience Among Asian Children in Challenging Family Environment

Abstract

Given that most of the resilient literature tends to focus on Western contexts, and the western-based research may have limited applications for policy and preventions in Asia, this issue attempts to examine educational resilience in Asian or Eastern societies to complement the wealth of research in the western-based research. In Asia, a large number of children live in challenging family environments such as poverty, increasing labor migration, increased divorced and associated factors. Investigating the pathways to educational resilience, particularly focusing on the protective factors that can buffer the negative effects of low socioeconomic status or dysfunctional family environments or migrant family environments on Asian children's educational outcomes has significant implications. In this research, we found that, in Asia, education is a key vehicle for individual's social mobility, and factors from the school, home, and community may increase students' chances of success by buffering the effect of some of the stressors from family on academic and personal success. This issue adds an empirical support from the East to Ungar's (2012) social ecology framing of resilience. This paper also provides evidence that suggests efforts by educators to promote resilience should be tailored to the unique risks to which a sub-population of children and youth is exposed. Academic/educational resilience referred to individuals achieving academic/educational competence despite being in challenging or disadvantaged circumstances (Martin 2002; Masten 1994; Wang et al. 1994). Resilience is a two-dimension construct: exposure to adversity or risk and manifestation of successful academic adaptation (or better than expected outcomes) in the face of that risk or adversity (

Physical and psychosocial quality of life in children with overweight and obesity from Sri Lanka

“…However, despite childhood obesity being a rising problem in South Asia, there is a lack of studies on QoL from the region. Further, there are considerable socio-cultural differences such as high parental expectations and different societal perceptions on ideal body weight and lifestyle standards [14]. Thus QoL data from other regions cannot be directly extrapolated to South Asian children.…”

Quality of Life and associated modifiable social factors in Sri-Lankan children with overweight and obesity: a cross-sectional study

“…However, while several studies showed better agreement between child-reported and parent-reported QoL on physical and school functioning [22,28], parents in our study reported signi cantly lower perception of QoL in physical and school functioning, compared to children themselves. In many South Asian countries, parents often consider school education as a major factor enabling social mobility for the whole family [14]. The lower perception of QoL by parents of overweight/obese children in physical and school functioning in our study, may perhaps re ect increased expectation of South Asian parents for high performance at school in both athletic and academic elds, exceeding children's' expectations.…”

“…The lower perception of QoL by parents of overweight/obese children in physical and school functioning in our study, may perhaps re ect increased expectation of South Asian parents for high performance at school in both athletic and academic elds, exceeding children's' expectations. Further, parents may not be aware of the ability of their children to achieve academic/educational competence despite being in disadvantaged circumstances (educational resilience) [14].…”

“…Similarly in physical and social functioning, we have shown QoL to be lower in obese compared to overweight children and a signi cant decline with increasing BMI, while emotional and school functioning did not show a signi cant difference. Programs for management of children with obesity, should therefore, try to understand and enhance the resilience of these children in emotional and school functioning, in addition to focusing on improving physical and social wellbeing in these children [14,24].…”

“…Studies on QoL are lacking from Sri Lanka and other developing countries from the South Asian region, despite childhood obesity being a rising problem in South Asia. Due to considerable differences in socio-cultural aspects including high parental expectations from school children, and differing societal perceptions on ideal body weight and lifestyle standards, ndings from QoL studies from other regions may not be directly applicable to South Asia [14]. Furthermore, previous studies have highlighted the need of exploring factors which could potentially affect QoL of overweight/obese children, in order to introduce new management strategies to improve their QoL [11,15].…”