Resilience to COVID-19 challenges: Lessons for school psychologists serving school-attending youth with experiences of marginalization

Abstract

This special issue is focused on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 health crisis, showcasing new cross-cultural research from different countries, such as rural/urban US, South Africa, and Australia. The aim οf the special issue is to highlight new knowledge related to pandemic-related impacts, as well as underscore variables that will promote children's resilience and especially vulnerable and marginalized children. We argue that all adults associated with schools (e.g., teachers, school psychologists, administrators, aides, parents, and social workers) need to synergize in creating a caring school community that is purposefully committed to supporting student resilience, especially among students with experiences of marginalization. A multisystemic resilience approach has been adopted and the focus has been on caring adults in the school communities and how they can support the most vulnerable students if the adults (school psychologists parents, caregivers, teachers, and other role-players) take co-ownership of championing student resilience in times of crisis. The studies included in this special issue highlight important issues especially for school psychologists, such as girls’ school engagement as a buffering factor to school disruptions, the value of multigenerational supports, the value of spirituality in dealing with crises, the sense of supportive connectedness with schools and finally teacher empowerment to support student wellbeing.

Social and Individual Factors Predicting Students’ Resilience: A Multigroup Structural Equation Model

“…By examining the results internationally for three countries, we identified (in-)stability of the respective resilience processes longitudinally for very different groups of students. Our argument is, following Matsopoulos and Theron [114], that effective collaboration among all adults involved in schools, including teachers, school psychologists, and social workers, is crucial for creating a nurturing school environment that focuses on promoting student resilience, especially among the most vulnerable students. The stress experienced by the individual student is also systemic stress when related to a pandemic [115].…”