Educational resilience among youth in foster care

Systematic review of protective factors related to academic resilience in children and adolescents: unpacking the interplay of operationalization, data, and research method

Identifying protective factors that promote academic resilience is vital. Nevertheless, due to the variations in the operationalizations of academic resilience, timeframes, data sources, and employed research methods, it remains unclear whether the impact of protective factors identified across studies can be attributed to the factors themselves or to these variations. By addressing these uncertainties, this study aims to provide an overview of the protective factors that have been extensively investigated in academic resilience and their degree of influence. A literature search found 119 empirical studies on protective factors in education settings for children and adolescents. The review analyzed five protective factors groups (individual, family, school, peer, community), three operationalizations of academic resilience (simultaneous, progressive, instrumental), two timeframes (longitudinal, non-longitudinal), three data sources (self-collected, national/local assessments, international large-scale assessments), and commonly employed research methods. The studies analyzed in this review yielded mixed results regarding the impact of the examined protective factors, with measurement instruments and statistical power playing a significant role in explaining the variations. Individual and school-level characteristics emerged as the most well-studied protective factors; individual characteristics were often investigated through "instrumental" operationalization and structural equational models, whereas school-level characteristics were typically explored through "simultaneous" or "progressive" operationalizations and multilevel modeling. Approximately 31 and 16% of the studies utilized national assessments and international large-scale assessment data, respectively. Both data sources promoted the exploration of school-level factors, with the former facilitating the exploration of protective factors across time and the latter contributing to the investigation of teaching-related factors.

Resilience anchors for children in an out-of-home care institution during and after COVID-19

Growing numbers of children of all ages grow up in out-of-home care institutions due to personal and socioecological risk variables that destabilized their families of origin. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted lives and development, there is particular interest in how children who grow up in out-of-home care institutions cope and develop. This paper reports the findings of a study that sought to document anchors of resilience in children who resided in a care institution run by a non-governmental, church-based welfare organization in one of the central provinces of South Africa. In line with recent developments in childcare, the organization mainly functions via smaller child and youth group homes across the province (compared to bigger children's homes in the past). In our qualitative, phenomenological study, we used the participatory, child-friendly, and less intrusive draw-and-write technique to generate data. We asked the 20 participating children of one of these group homes to make drawings that mirror their lives, and to write paragraphs in which they described their drawings. All were school-going children in care, aged from 12 to 19. There were 11 girls and 9 boys in the study, and one of these identified as "other." The grades ranged from 7 to 12 and they spoke African languages, namely Afrikaans, Sesotho, Setswana and IsiXhosa. We used inductive content analysis to process the data, and the findings indicate that, notwithstanding personal and socioecological risks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilience of the participants was anchored by a number of universal personal strengths as well as socioecological resources.

A Meta-Regression of Racial Disparities in Wellbeing Outcomes During and After Foster Care

Children in foster care face heightened risk of adverse psychosocial and economic outcomes compared with children in the general population. Yet, the effects of foster care as an intervention are heterogeneous. Heterogeneity outcomes by race and ethnicity are of particular interest, given that Black and Indigenous youth experience foster care at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups and experience group differences in setting, duration, and exits to permanency. This meta-regression explores racial disparities in education, employment, mental health, and behavioral outcomes during and following foster care. A systematic search of PsycINFO, ERIC, and Academic Search Complete using a series of search terms for studies published between January 2000 and June 2021 found 70 articles and 392 effect sizes that provided outcomes of US-based foster care by race/ethnicity. Findings reveal that Black foster care impacted persons (FCIPs) have 20% lower odds (95% CI: .68-.93) of achieving employment or substantial financial earnings and have 18% lower odds (95% CI: .68-1.00) of mental health concerns compared to White FCIPs. Hispanic FCIPs have 10% lower odds (95% CI: .84-.97) of achieving stable housing compared to non-Hispanic FCIPs. Moderator analyses revealed certain study features (i.e. publication type, timing of the study, location of the study, and placement status of the participants) have a significant impact on the gap between Black and non-Black and Hispanic and non-Hispanic FCIPs. The findings provide important implications for racial disparities in foster care outcomes, as well as highlight important gaps and missing information from published studies.

The relationship between school climate and students' non-cognitive skills: A systematic literature review

The school climate plays a substantial part in student development. A positive and nurturing school climate encourages the growth of all-rounders and holistic individuals. Past literature has highlighted several domains related to the school climate, including academic performance, well-being, student engagement, attendance in school, delinquent behaviors, bullying, and school safety. However, little is known about the development of other related domains, like non-cognitive skills, in school. The purpose of the study is to review the linkages of school climate with the development of students' non-cognitive skills. The current study employs a systematic literature review that adheres to PRISMA to determine the association between school climate and students' non-cognitive skills. First, this study conducted three stages of rigorous and systematic searching: identification, screening, and eligibility. As a result of the search, this study identified 65 relevant articles from Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect as the leading databases and Google Scholar and Dimension. ai as supporting databases. Next, the current study highlights five clusters based on the analysis of network visualization by the VOSviewer software. These clusters are: the non-cognitive skills' intrapersonal and interpersonal key characteristics, a nurturing school climate and the presence of non-cognitive skills mitigate deviant behaviour in school settings, the non-cognitive skills as a predictor of academic outcomes, the multifaceted antecedents of school climate in promoting the development of student non-cognitive skills, the role of school domains and non-cognitive attributes towards students' cognitive development. This systematic literature review contributes a novel framework and an in-depth understanding of the relationship between school climate and students' non-cognitive skills. The current research serves as a starting point for future researchers to delve deeper into this subject matter to provide educational organisations with valuable guidance when navigating for better educational outcomes. In addition, the current review will shed light on the school climate and students' non-cognitive skills to further examine what has already been learnt and the missing links, contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic.

Social relationships and grit in English as a foreign language learning among high school students: A three-wave longitudinal study

This study examined the longitudinal reciprocal relations between students' grit and their perceptions of social relationships (teacher-student and peer relationships) in studying English as a foreign language (EFL). A total of 2,435 students from Grades 10-11 in China (Mage = 16.40 years old, 54.2% female) participated in the study on three occasions across 1 year. The three-wave cross-lagged analytic model results indicated that (a) peer relationship and grit reciprocally enhanced each other across both intervals; (b) the teacher-student relationship at Time 2 was influenced by Time 1 grit, but not vice versa. Nevertheless, the teacher-student relationship transactionally facilitated each other during the second interval (from Time 2 to Time 3). The multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) results indicated that such relations remained stable across gender. The study's findings contribute to ongoing research delineating the dynamic system between social relationships and grit in EFL learning. It also reveals that males and females benefit similarly during social communications with peers and their English language teachers. Implications for educational practices were discussed.