The study explores the characteristics associated with resilience in young people who are deemed to be ‘at risk’ of involvement in anti-social and other problem behaviour.
Of the 6,553 children in the study sample, 13% were defined as being at risk of involvement in anti-social and other problem behaviour. However, of this sub-group of ‘at risk’ children, 88% were defined as being resilient.
The key findings of this study are:
The resilient children had significantly fewer peer problems; higher IQ and self-esteem; greater school enjoyment and lower levels of family adversity compared with the non-resilient group. The mothers of the resilient children also had better parenting skills but surprisingly reported less positive parenting experiences.
School enjoyment at age 4½ and 8½ was found to be independently associated with resilience.
Girls were significantly more resilient than boys.
Analysis conducted on the sample of boys only, showed school enjoyment, parenting skills and pro-social behaviour to be significantly associated with resilience.
The findings show school enjoyment as a key predictive factor of resilience in both boys and girls. This highlights the importance of a positive school experience in preventing early onset anti-social behaviour.