Investigating the Factors of Resiliency among Exceptional Youth Living in Rural Poverty

1. Investigating the Factors of Resiliency among Exceptional Youth Living in Rural Poverty The purpose of this presentation is to report on the findings of a multi-school qualitative study of resilience among exceptional youth living in rural poverty. Findings include the discovery of unique factors based on the distinctive attributes of this population. Implications for strength-based treatment as well as recommendations for future research are highlighted. ABSTRACT Joseph Benedetto, Janelle Brandow, Paul Keeley, Heather Loud, Ashley Wagner, Kevin A. Curtin Alfred University Resiliency, Exceptional Youth, and Rural Poverty DATA COLLECTION Data collection involved face-to-face interviewing of participants using the semi-structured interview protocol, which took about 30-45 minutes. A definition of resilience was provided to ensure consistency across interviews. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and edited for accuracy. Peer-debriefing, memoing, and member-checks were employed to describe and eventually gain feedback of emerging themes. Data-collection concluded due to sufficient data redundancy and because thick description of emerging themes had been achieved. METHOD DISCUSSION DISCUSSION The data that emerged from this study described three related theoretical constructs in which resiliency is understood, specifically, risk factors, positive personal qualities, and positive social conditions. These constructs influenced the common themes that emerged, which led to the development of a grounded theory regarding the factors of resiliency for exceptional youth living in rural poverty as seen through the eyes of rural school counselors and teachers. The risk factors of poverty, isolation, and family instability clearly share commonalities as described by school counselors and teachers. Similarly, the personal qualities of a positive attitude, perseverance, and help-seeking behaviors seem to have a relationship with the positive social conditions of a supportive school environment and healthy adult role models. The interplay of all these factors have important implications for school counseling practice. Emergent framework for resiliency among exceptional youth living in rural poverty. __________________________________________________________ IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL COUNSELING PRACTICE “The basic philosophy found in resilience literature is analogous with the tenets of the ASCA National Model, thus soundly supporting the applicability of resiliency-based efforts in the school counseling field” (Burnham, 2009, p. 32). It is important to help exceptional children living in rural poverty deal with adversities from a strengths-based, preventative and intervention perspective. To help students increase the protective factors found in this study, as well as the variant themes that emerged, we suggest the following: Preparation and training so that rural school counselors understand the risk factors and resiliency characteristics of exceptional youth living in rural poverty. Foster parent and family involvement in the school through reach-out programs. Establish or maintain high expectations for schools that include academic achievement, career development and transition services, extracurricular activities, and mentoring experiences. Teach social skills that focuses on help-seeking behaviors, perseverance, self-advocacy, coping skills, and positive peer relationships. Promote family wellness and effective parenting. Provide basic meals and health care for low-income students. LIMITATIONS Several variant themes were not the focus of this study, such as coping skills, intelligence, positive peer relationships, and problem-solving Selection of participants only included school counselors and teachers Common biases of school professionals could skew results Sample lacked diversity in terms of gender, race, and geographic region Qualitative results are not generalizable RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Include more data sources and the perspectives from current students as well as resilient adults from similar backgrounds. Investigate the resilience factors of exceptional youth living in urban underserved communities in order to offer a comparison. Continue to explore common and variant themes from this study Exceptional youth. A significant number of students with special needs have social problems in school, including high absenteeism, course failure, bullying, being bullied, fighting, and being suspended (Wagner & Cameto, 2004). Rural Poverty. Children and families living in rural poverty often have fewer resources and access to services and are more likely to experience violence, hunger, marital conflict, poor health, abuse, and poor performance in school. Resilience: an individual's ability to adapt to and even rebound from negative or distressful circumstances and somehow maintain a level of positive functioning in their lives. Grounded theory was the most appropriate method for this purpose as it provided an opportunity to view the data in a framework that focused on finding recurrent and emerging themes, eventually developing a theory about the phenomenon (Corbin & Strauss, 2007). Research question guiding this study: What factors contribute to the resiliency of exceptional youth living in rural poverty? POSITIVE PERSONAL QUALITIES Positive attitude. School professionals discussed the positive thinking that exceptional youth seemed to have when transcending adverse situations. Self-confidence, positive self-esteem, and a good sense of self were all noted as important personal qualities. These youth had hope, faith, and an ability to envision a bright future. As one school counselor noted: A lot of it is how they look at things. They don’t look at what they don’t have, rather, they look at what they do have. I have had a couple of kids that have gone through very traumatic experiences – I have one boy whose mom has been going through cancer and his family does not have much but he is so good about keeping a positive outlook and being positive. I see that a lot. Perseverance. Participants noted that resilient youth possessed an internal determination to better their situation. These students were seen as strong willed, survivors, and very much focused on their goals to achieve. School professionals saw the ability to be assertive, that is, to stick up for oneself, as important in handling difficult situations. As one school counselor noted: Most resilient kids have an uncanny sense of self despite rough circumstances. They have an ability to work through or see through challenges without giving up. They don’t tend to play victims. Help seeking behaviors. Participants indicated that this population was active in reaching out for help. These students were able to find and establish connections within their school, seek out important resources, and obtain support from a variety of individuals that included school counselors, teachers, coaches, as well as their peer group in order to help them make good decisions. A lot of kids who are having problems seek out coaches as well as they do counselors and teachers - a wide net of supportive adults. Everybody tries to stay in communication with each other and kids are pretty good at that too. POSITIVE SOCIAL CONDITIONS Supportive school environment. Participants described how important a supportive school environment is in fostering students’ resiliency, specifically, access to special education services as well as involvement in after-school programs. Counseling and academic support were viewed as critical and students were seen as more open to these supports than ever before. Extracurricular activities, especially sports, are strongly encouraged for all students. In addition, having a variety of programs and services allows these students to maintain a positive level of functioning. A teacher shared: I think at this stage of their life it is the school surroundings. They spend the majority of their waking hours at school and the school is responsible more than ever, from meals and counseling to instruction and parenting. The school system, peers, teachers, coaches, and counselors – they’re all part of the parenting process that fosters these children’s resiliency. Adult role models. School professionals indicated that resilient youth often sought out an adult who helped them succeed and overcome their struggles. Participants described adult role models as trustworthy, positive, and accepting. These are individuals who believe in a student and who the student can count on a regular basis. Often this was someone at the school, but participants also mentioned family members, relatives, or someone from the community. A lot of the kids that have had traumatic experiences have had a t least one positive role model in their life. A lot of them have family they can depend on. Some are connected to their church and the supports within their church. And at the school, if we see a kid that’s having a difficult time at the school, we try to help as a school community. We try to find resources for them with the community as well. Open coding for each transcript was conducted, using a line-by-line coding procedure to detect key phrases and concepts as potential categories. Peer debriefing occurred to formulate a consensus coding procedure, which involved memoing and reviewing the open-coding documents in order to identify categories for the focused coding procedure. Focused coding procedures reduced the data into more meaningful categories in which clusters of data could condense. Researchers then began to identify possible theoretical aspects of resilience. Another round of debriefing occurred to gain further consensus of how the focused coding was interpreted. Summary 22 emerging themes were identified from the initial open coding procedure. Following the stated procedures, the number of themes was reduced to 8 across 3 theoretically meaningful categories: (1) risk factors, (2) positive personal qualities, and (3) positive social conditions. PARTICIPANTS 15 school professionals between the ages of 24 And 53 (M= 38.5). Thirteen of the participants were female (87%) and two were male (13%). All identified their race as White. Four special education teachers (26.6%); four general education teachers (26.6%); and 7 school counselors (46.6%). Years employed in the profession was btw 1 & 20 years (M = 10.6). PROCEDURE Convenience sampling procedures were used Criteria for participation: -Employed as school counselors or teachers in a rural school district -Familiar with economically disadvantaged exceptional youth Recruiting was conducted through five different school practicum sites. DATA SOURCES A semi-structured interview was used which was adapted from the Youth Resilience Interview Guide, a protocol developed by The Resilience Research Centre (RRC).  The interview guide is composed of catalyst questions, with the goal of ensuring consistency of data collection across research sites. Some of the questions are as follows: What kinds of things are most challenging for children and youth growing up in this area? What do resilient children and youth do to survive and grow up well here, despite the many problems they face? What personal qualities make it possible for these students to flourish when they have grown up with a great deal of difficulties? What social conditions make it possible for these students to flourish when they have grown up with such difficulties? Can you share with me a story about a child who grew up well in this community despite facing many challenges? How did this child manage to overcome these challenges? RESULTS DATA ANALYSIS METHOD (continued) RESULTS (continued) RISK FACTORS Poverty. Participants described poverty as particularly challenging for exceptional youth growing up in rural communities. Many students come from low income families, experience high unemployment, and rely on public assistance. Participants discussed how both families and schools in rural areas have limited resources for children and youth. A teacher described: Many of our kids come to school in the morning having very little to eat and are coming to school with no breakfast; lunch is the first big meal of the day. Isolation: Another challenge for youth living in rural areas is the isolation they experience. School professionals described this as an issue of proximity, that is, families are spread out all across the rural area, with very few living in neighborhoods. Poor, isolated families lack access to resources as well as productive and healthy activities to engage in. Isolated families are often disconnected from schools and lack cultural exposure. A school counselor shared I think isolation is the biggest challenge. Kids live where they do not have access to community. There is nothing in terms of transportation to get them anywhere. So school becomes the center of activity; and what happens in school becomes very important for kids. Family instability. Participants described this in terms of broken households due to separation and divorce , absentee parents, alcohol/drug abuse, and physical abuse. Many parents were described as having poor parenting skills, low educational level, and an inability to offer academic assistance to their children. Many of our parents just don’t know how to parent, some of them are way too young and they have not had any good role models themselves.