Abstract
In this study we explored the contribution of parents’ perceptions of their child’s resilience to their assessments of the child’s abilities and academic proficiencies. We examined whether parents’ perceptions of their child’s resilience would predict, independently of the child’s assessed competencies, their appraisals of the child’s respective competencies across a four-year time span. A group of academically and vocationally educated parents (N = 326) evaluated their child’s resiliencies (education-related, persistence, and confidence) when the child was in the fifth grade. The parents also assessed their child’s competencies in various abilities and school subjects. They then repeated these assessments once the child had entered the ninth grade, i.e., at the end of his/her compulsory education. Linear regression analyses indicated that the parents’ perceptions, especially those of their child’s educational resilience, did have significant effects on their assessments of the child’s verbal–cognitive competencies. In addition, the results suggested that perceptions of a child’s resiliencies might be more pertinent for academically educated than for vocationally educated parents. Accordingly, even though parental assessments of their child’s future competencies are closely associated with the respective assessments of his/her current competencies, the perceptions of the child’s educational resilience may function as a separate basis for parents’ appraisals of their child’s competencies.
Highlights
While there are different definitions of childhood resilience, it is generally thought to represent an important psychological resource for coping
Childhood resilience has been addressed from the educational point of view, there are few studies in existence on how parents perceive their child in terms of resilience and how these perceptions pertain to their assessments of the child’s competencies
We define the concept of educational resilience as a collection of beliefs indicating parental confidence in the child’s educational potential, based on trust in the child’s relatively stable and general internal capacity for learning
Summary
While there are different definitions of childhood resilience, it is generally thought to represent an important psychological resource for coping. Childhood resilience has been addressed from the educational point of view, there are few studies in existence on how parents perceive their child in terms of resilience and how these perceptions pertain to their assessments of the child’s competencies. We define the concept of educational resilience as a collection of beliefs indicating parental confidence in the child’s educational potential, based on trust in the child’s relatively stable and general internal capacity for learning. Besides the psychological point of view, childhood resilience has been addressed from the educational perspective. Borman and Overman (2004) found that those children who had resilient outcomes in mathematics were more strongly involved in academic activities and had a more positive attitude towards school than children with non-resilient outcomes. Achievement at school is often regarded as an indicator of resilience (Carr & Claxton, 2002)
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