Resilience in Western Australian adolescents: A model of the processes that occur between risk and success.

The aim of this research was to develop a model that represents how adolescents in the Western Australian context navigate their way to resilience. Resilience was defined as “the outcome from negotiations between individuals and their environments for the resources to define themselves as healthy amidst conditions collectively viewed as adverse” (Ungar, 2004a, p. 342). The philosophical approach was social constructivist and the methodology was mixed, employing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies through grounded theory. The techniques used to gather data included interviewing, focus groups, and questionnaires. There were three stages in the research: namely, developing the model of resilience, testing the validity of the model, and comparing the qualitative findings to a quantitative measure of protective processes related to resilience. In the first stage of the research, a model of resilience was developed through a qualitative grounded theory approach. Data was gathered through individual semistructured in-depth interviews with 8 male and 15 female participants (M=15.5 years of age). The interview transcripts were analysed through open coding and axial coding to develop categories. These categories were then developed into a model based on the relationships that emerged through the analysis. The resulting model included the categories or risk, response to risk, insight, self-worth, letting go and acceptance, and success. The core category that related to all other categories was “self-worth. ” In the second stage of the research, the validity of the model developed in Stage One was tested through two focus groups of adolescents. There was a total of 14 participants (8 females, 6 males) in the focus groups, with 8 participants in the first group and 6 participants in the second group (M=15 years of age). The focus groups were analysed through a “Template” approach whereby a priori codes developed from Stage One were used to code the transcripts. The findings indicated that the model was an accurate representation of the process adolescents from Perth, Western Australia navigate to achieve resilience. In Stage Three, the contextual findings from Stage One and Two were compared to a quantitative measure, the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ: Hjemdal, Friborg, Stiles, Martinussen, & Rosenvinge, 2006). The READ is a scale that R e s i l i e n c e i n A d o l e s c e n c e iv measures the presence of protective factors related to resilience. It has five subscales, namely Personal Competence, Social Competence, Social Resources, Family Cohesion, and Structured Style. The response format is a Likert scale that ranges from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). There were 16 male and 20 female participants (M=15.3 years of age) in Stage Three who had participated in either Stage One or Stage Two of the current research. Participant responses to the READ were analysed through single sample t tests to determine if the total scores were significantly higher than average, and to identify which subscales were rated significantly higher than the average response of “3. ” The t test indicated that the total scores were significantly higher (M=105.29) than 83, which is an average response of “3” over the entire scale, t(35) = 11.40, p<. 00. Furthermore, the subscales of Personal Competence (M=3.52), Social Competence (M=3.78), Social Resources (M=4.18), and Family Cohesion (M=3.62) were rated significantly higher than average by the resilient participants. The fifth subscale, Structured Style (M=3.15) was the only subscale on the READ that was nonsignificant. Aspects of the significant subscales reflected protective processes within the resilience model, indicating that the protective processes identified in the current research may be evident in other contexts. The results of this research contribute to theory, policy, and practice in both psychology and education. The contribution to psychology includes the development of a resilience model, the recognition of context, the identification of the protective process self-worth, and implications of adolescent consultation. In education, this research highlights the significance of providing adolescents opportunities to develop worth, self-efficacy, and positive relationships within the school setting. A limitation of this research is that the findings may only be applicable to the current context and only a small group of adolescents may benefit from the findings. In addition, restrictions placed on participant selection by the gatekeepers of the research settings may have excluded resilient participants and their unique contribution to the research. In future research it would be beneficial to develop an understanding of each category in further depth to understand how the theoretical findings can be applied practically, and to test if the model is universal across cultures. R e s i l i e n c e i n A d o l e s c e n c e v