Bouncing back from adversity - Factors influencing educational resilience in adolescents
Adolescence is marked by a period of transition that entails academic, physical and biological development. Not all youngsters undergoing this period of transition, however, experience smooth sailing. Adversity can, in fact, become a part of one’s life from a very young age. This adversity can take different forms, where the individual could encounter setbacks in a single or across multiple facets of life from health ailments to problematic relationships with parents to lapses in academic performance amongst other impediments. For instance, the advent and the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed many young students lose their parents and loved ones, causing enormous emotional and economic distress, and leading to a sudden lack of direction in their lives. In the face of such hindered progress, one needs to be emotionally supported to start looking at life constructively, perceive obstacles as learning experiences, and develop the potential to persevere, not give up and bounce back stronger.
The ability to successfully adapt to challenging life circumstances, and bounce back with enhanced capabilities to handle and overcome similar setbacks at future time points is what researchers call resilience. The present article will focus on a particular area of resilience - academic or educational resilience in students who are adolescents (in the age group of 10-19 years). Specific focus on adolescents in this article can be attributed to a critical phase of academic transition, with students moving from primary to secondary to tertiary education. The whole period could, therefore, be characterized by the development of future-driven academic skills and problem-solving capabilities coupled with personal, biological, and emotional growth and upheavals.
Potential risk factors
Along with personal risk factors, adolescents are likely to be exposed to other risks that can hamper their academic performance. For instance, problematic smartphone use is rising among children and adolescents the world over. However, a systematic review suggested that academic success and high motivation at school can mitigate this risk; this further highlights the need to foster academic resilience. Similarly, inadequate sleep and excessive use of violent video games are significant risks associated with poorer academic performance. Moreover, lack of parental involvement (at home, at school, and through academic socialization) also lowers adolescent academic success.
Parental support and academic resilience
Parents are meant to be adolescents’ primary point of emotional and economic support and care. The dynamics of parent-adolescent relationships in how parents help in the adolescent’s emotion regulation and the confidence, feedback and guidance that they offer could play an integral role in shaping the adolescent’s resilience. Parents act as a central protective factor against stressors that could negatively influence the adolescent’s physical and mental well-being. This enables the individual to explore, learn and appropriately modify their thought processes, actions and expectations. Research shows that parental support is positively associated with students’ resilience. Children were also likely to accurately figure out their parents’ failure mind-sets which, in turn, influenced the child’s intelligence mind-set itself.
Non-parental relationships and resilience
When it comes to educational success as well as resilience of children, parents, therefore, undoubtedly play a significant role. However, research confirms that support from extra-familial relationships, such as teachers and friends, is equally vital in fostering academic resilience. Consider a student who faces significant setbacks or adversities at home but receives unconditional support and encouragement from caring friends and teachers. This support can be in the form of study assistance, constructive feedback, or even emotional support; thereby fostering resilience and empowering students to overcome obstacles and thrive academically. Research illustrates that students with strong peer relationships tend to be more motivated, engaged, and adaptable in their academic pursuits. This not only allows the student to maintain healthy relationships but provides a space for them to share their issues, which in turn enhances academic achievement and overall growth. Another study focusing on Asian children from low socio-economic backgrounds highlighted how extra-familial institutions act as intervention systems to help children build a positive attitude and commitment towards education. Although family, schools, and community factors may not exercise independent influence on resilience, a multi-systemic and coordinated approach to build resilience in students will be much more effective.
Personality factors influencing resilience
Research trends in the resiliency domain have shifted focus from identifying peculiarities of resilient children to identifying the processes that nurture their resilience to adverse circumstances. To this end, resilience correlates have been examined in relation to the personality dimensions. Together, a resilient personality is evidently composed of higher extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness traits, and low levels of neurotic factors. In addition, resilience has been implicated in relation to individual profiles and characteristics since decades. For example, easy temperament circumscribing outgoing, optimistic and conscientious styles can mitigate early biological risk factors in adolescents. This perspective can be critical in understanding response to adverse life circumstances over life-time. However, age-related evidence for resilient personalities is still inconclusive. Yet, the extent to which resilience is positively or negatively related to certain personality traits can be useful in identifying the training and developmental needs for adolescents.
From the aforementioned paragraphs, it is clear that resilience plays a vital role in influencing adolescents’ academic engagement and mindset. The support of parents, family members, teachers and peers could contribute to the level of resilience that adolescents exhibit over time. To enhance an adolescent’s resilience, parents can actively engage in conversations with their children that enable them to believe that there is room for failure, exploration and creativity. Teachers can observe and adapt their teaching methods to cater to different learning styles besides holding process-driven, motivational interactions with their students. Considering that adolescents spend the most time with their peers, friends can be supportive by recognizing their emotions, encouraging them to open up and suggesting ways to overcome feedback. Adolescents themselves can reflect on their reactions to challenges, and seek help from their social connections to build educational resilience.
Varun Ramgopal, Hreem Mahadeshwar, Zarnab Zahoor and Hansika Kapoor
