Is the Whole Greater Than Its Parts? Resilience and Academic Outcomes Among Ethnically Diverse Adolescents

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Identifying and Ameliorating Academic Risk of Failure for Adolescents in School

Abstract

The current study examines academic outcomes (i.e., grades, effort) from a strength-based resilience approach. Specifically, the individual and synergistic effect of social support (teacher, peer), peer school aspirations, and effort on academic outcomes. We sampled 220 African-American, Mexican-American, and Native-American adolescents using SEM analyses to examine whether these resilience factors, individually or in combination, affected academic outcomes. We found that resilience, as a latent factor, was only predictive of academic outcomes for African-American youth; whereas only some of the individual factors were predictive for Mexican-American and Native-American youth. The results of effort as an outcome variable and methodological implications, particularly for how resilience and academic outcomes are conceptualized and measured for ethnically diverse populations are also discussed.

Authors

• Adaurennaya Chidinma Onyewuenyi, The College of New Jersey

• Zoe Higheagle Strong, Washington State University - Pullman

• Bruce W Austin, Washington State University - Pullman