Personal factors as predictors of academic resilience among public secondary school students in Turkana county, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Students from Turkana County compete for the same education benefits as those in the least marginalized counties with some succeeding and thriving. It is necessary to establish the factors that promote academic resilience hence the investigation of personal factors that promote academic resilience. Purpose: This study was an investigation of the relationship between personal factors and academic resilience among public secondary school students in Turkana County. Methodology: This study’s philosophical underpinning was pragmatism. It employed a mixed methods approach using the concurrent triangulation design analysis. The instruments of data collection tools were questionnaires and interview schedules. The sample size consisted of 382 students who responded to questionnaires, and 10 teachers and 10 students for the interview schedules. For the questionnaires, the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient overall output was .845. The content, construct and criterion-related validity were also established. Similarly, the trustworthiness and authenticity of the qualitative data was established. Results: The study found out that that there was a statistically significant strong positive correlation (r= .712, n=378, P> .05) between personal factors and academic resilience. Sense of meaning and purpose had the strongest associations with academic resilience, followed by autonomy and sense of self (r=0.599, P<0.05), and then social competence (r=0.544, P<0.05). Further, indicators of personal factors explain 51.0% of the variation in academic resilience Recommendations: The study recommended that both parents and teachers should play an active role to support students to develop and increase social competence, autonomy, and sense of self, meaning, and purpose in their lives, and nurture positive relationships to enhance academic resilience.