Psychological and Educational Resilience in High vs. Low-Risk Romanian Adolescents

Abstract

Psychological and educational resilience are two essential requirements for Romanian adolescents to succeed in today's society. Resilience is the ability to positively adapt despite significant adversity. The main aim of this study is to investigate the impact of risk factors on adolescents’ psychological and educational resilience. The participants were 251 urban Romanian adolescents, from ninth through twelfth grade, (mean age = 16.1 years, 64.5% females and 35.5% males), recruited from five high schools in Bucharest. Data were collected on Psychological resilience and its scales: Novelty seeking, Emotional regulation and Positive future orientation, Educational resilience, Number of school absences, Overall average grade and Risk factors. Results indicated that high-risk adolescents (n = 177) had a significantly lower Psychological resilience, Educational resilience and Overall average grade, along with a higher Number of school absences than their peers with low-risk factors (n = 74). These findings have implications for school practitioners interested in developing adolescents’ ability to overcome significant challenges and succeed academically, emotionally and socially.