Individual differences among at-risk students changing the relationship between resilience and vocational identity

Rineke Keijzer,Roeland Van Der Rijst,Erik Van Schooten,Wilfried Admiraal

doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101893

Rineke Keijzer, Roeland Van Der Rijst + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101893

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Abstract

The way at-risk students see themselves as workers, their vocational identity, is important for their career development. Special programs for heterogeneous groups of at-risk students in the Netherlands aim to foster students’ vocational identity and their task may be eased by stimulating resilience. Therefore this cross-sectional study explored whether differences in at-risk students’ individual characteristics moderate the relationship between their resilience and vocational identity. In general, resilient students often have strong vocational identities compared to less resilient students. However, the strength of the relationships vary with varying personal characteristics. Results enable educational programs to attune to at-risk students with the strongest relationships between resilience and vocational identity: males, younger subgroups, and those experiencing less motivation and low school engagement.

Highlights

Many if not all students who are in danger of dropping out of school, so called at-risk students, face obstacles both at school and in personal life. Brahm et al (2014) and Sulimani-Aidan (2017) mention, for example, poor social support, chronic poverty, criminal surroundings, broken families, and the burden of young parenthood
This study explored the assumption that the heterogeneity of the at-risk students —combined with different levels of resilience— is of value for their vocational identity
This study showed that several individual characteristics of at-risk students moderated the relationship between personal and social resilience, on the one hand, and vocational self-image, vocational future image, and vocational self-efficacy, on the other hand

Summary

Introduction

Many if not all students who are in danger of dropping out of school, so called at-risk students, face obstacles both at school and in personal life. Brahm et al (2014) and Sulimani-Aidan (2017) mention, for example, poor social support, chronic poverty, criminal surroundings, broken families, and the burden of young parenthood. Brahm et al (2014) and Sulimani-Aidan (2017) mention, for example, poor social support, chronic poverty, criminal surroundings, broken families, and the burden of young parenthood These problems can deter at-risk students from attending school and may hinder graduation or continuing education. Moderation effects are expected to be stronger for the at-risk students with lower levels of the personality traits, and with lower reported motivation and feelings of engagement to school The rationale for these anticipated moderation effects arises from the abovementioned differences among groups of students, and leads to the research question that directs this exploratory study: “To what extent do individual student characteristics moderate the relationship between personal and social resilience, on the one hand, and vocational identity, on the other hand?”

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