Introduction to the special issue: Resilience in schools

Abstract

This special issue, titled "Resilience in Schools," examines the theoretical and empirical bases of resilience in children and its implications for school practices that strengthen the success of children who are exposed to high-risk stressors or grow up under conditions of adversity. Each author uses a systemic approach to resilience that emphasizes the complex and integrated role of schools, families, and communities working together to foster students' educational and psychological wellbeing. Within this systemic perspective, resilience is the complex interaction of child characteristics (personal resilience) and socio-environmental supports (family, school, and community) that buffer the effects of adverse situations and allow students to succeed despite risk.

Relationship Among Type of School, Academic Resilience and Academic Achievement Among Secondary School Students in Kiambu County, Kenya

“…As presented in Table 3, the mean academic achievement score for the low academic resilience category was 42.37 (SD=4.57), that for the moderate academic resilience category was 44.39 (SD=7.99) while that for the high academic resilience category was 58.66 (SD= 5.84). The pattern of the mean academic achievement scores was consistent with the results of previous studies that have reported a positive correlation between levels of academic resilience and levels of academic achievement (Esquivel, Doll, & Oades-Sese, 2011;Masten & Tellegen, 2012).…”

Degrees of resilience: profiling psychological resilience and prospective academic achievement in university inductees

“…Esquivel, Doll & Oades-Sese, 2011 ).Unique to this study, females' resilience was more facilitative of prospective achievement than were males with similar resilience scores, which equated to relatively poorer outcomes. The facilitative quality of females' resilience was illustrated through positive predictive relationships between respective academic outcomes and cluster groups which outperformed both of the male cluster counterparts.…”

“…Resilience has predicted academic attainment in high school students (Capella & Weinsten, 2001;Gonzalez & Padilla, 1997;Martin & Marsh, 2006;Nota, Soresi & Zimmerman, 2004) where the conceptual frameworks of academic resilience and academic buoyancy have been developed to identify factors which may protect against stress (Martin & Marsh, 2008. Personal attributes including relatedness, a sense of mastery and spirituality (Prince-Embury, 2011;Kim & Esquivel, 2011) and support from parents and teachers (Bryan, 2005;Mullis, Rathge & Mullis, 2003;Prince-Embury, 2008) have contributed to resilience being used to underpin mental health services and academic success in school settings (Esquivel, Doll & Oades-Sese, 2011, Doll, Jones, Osborn, Dooley & Turner, 2011. In contrast, resilience has been less prominent in HE; limited understanding may have reflected inadequate pedagogy and support, especially for new groups of students with distinctive needs beyond those of the stereotypical HE learner (Walker, Gleaves & Grey, 2006).…”

A Review of Literature on At-Risk Adolescent Students in Malaysia: Needing an Academic Resilience Model

“…The resilience assets empower individuals to mould an environment they are in, which in turn form their developmental processes. This is a widely accepted ecological framework for understanding the internal and external resilience assets, the dynamic interactions between risk and protective factors (see Doll et al 2011;Esquivel et al 2011;Gordon & Song 1994;Von Soest et al 2010).…”