Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out the risk factors concerning the school resilience and to explore what kind of protective factors serve to alleviate the influence of those risk factors among dropout or latent dropout adolescents. This study also aims at searching for the protective factors which exert influences on school dropout adolescents' school resilience under the same risky conditions. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of 92 vocational high school students who had experienced dropout or had been rated as latent dropout. The questionnaire was consisted of the check list of 7 risk factors (depressive/giving-up trait, aggressive/impulsive trait, personal developmental risk, family structure, family dysfunction, socioeconomic status, and life event stress) and the check list of 13 protective factors(responsibility, planfulness, internal locus of control, self efficacy, social skill, democratic parenting of the father, democratic parenting of the mother, the family's support, the peer group's support, the teacher's support, positive climate of school, job satisfaction, and extracurricular activities) with school resilience(composed of the interest in school, academic achievement, rule-governed conduct) as a dependent variable. To compare with ordinary students, 109 regular academic high school students in Youngdeungpo and Inchon were also surveyed with the check list of 7 risk factors and school resilience. It was found out that the research group has been exposed to much more accumulated risk factors than the compare group. The most influential risk factor for the school resilience was the aggressive/impulsive trait of adolescents. There was the difference in characteristic quality between groups since students from single or no parent family in the comparison group tended to fail in school resilience, whereas those in the research group showed more positive attitude towards academic achievement. The influential protective factors for school resilience were the positive climate of school, the teacher's support, and responsibility. Overall protective factors are much more likely to explain school resilience than risk factors. There were no differences in family structure, socioeconomic status, and personal developmental risk between high and low resilient adolescents at higher risks. However, there were significant differences in the aggressive/impulsive trait, depressive/giving-up trait, life event stress, and family dysfunction. Among protective factors, responsibility, self efficacy, teacher's support and the positive climate of school showed significant influences on school resilience.