Academic Resilience: Factors and Impact on Student Success

1. With respect to “Big Brothers/Big Sisters Mentoring: The Power of
Developmental Relationships,” why do you think minority Little Brothers
and Sisters showed a more dramatic lowering effect in their likelihood to
use drugs, compared to non-minority Little Brothers and Sisters?
Minority youths often live in adverse low-income environment with family
history of drug abuse which increases the possibility of these young people
to get into alcoholism or drug –abuse. They also have less expectation from
life in terms of achieving success or overall establishment. But introduction
to developmental program like BBBS gives them a chance to be understood
and to be heard and also get proper guidance and care which encourages
them to look for better life choices for themselves. They realize that they
also have great potential to achieve success and change their lifestyle and
create a better environment for themselves. The substantial turn around by
at risk youth of minority group was also because of the emotional support
and motivation they were receiving which was often absent in their adverse
home situation. Since these individuals receive better guidance and feel a
sense of emotional security and dependence, they grow an underlying
sense of responsibility and urge to retain this new grown mental stability.
Also minority groups lack other materialistic contentment and financial
stability, which eventually affects mental stability, due their low-income
status. The emotional contentment and stability work as a repulsion to feel
the urge to depend on any kind of substance and thus lessens the rate of
substance use by them.
2. With respect to the Criss et al. article, it was found that neither
temperament nor social information processing patterns(encoding
skills)influenced the likelihood of having positive peer relationships and
friendships. The author also notes that unmeasured factors, such as
physical attractiveness, IQ and athletic ability could possibly account for
the buffering effects of positive peer relationships and friendships. How
do you think such factors could influence having positive peer

relationships and friendships, which would consequently lead to
protection against family risk factors?
It has been found that close friendship and strong peer bond creates a
“buffering effect” for youths with an adverse home environment [ Criss,
Pettit, Bates, Dodge and Lapp, 2002] and also creates a higher rate of
mental dependence of these youths on friends. The factors like physical
attractiveness, IQ or athletic ability does play a vital role in influencing
positive peer relationships in variable situations. A young boy with high IQ
belonging to a high income background may easily bond with a boy of same
age with high IQ but with a low-income background. Here their differences
in social status do not affect their friendship as they have bonded because
of the intellectual sameness and maturity they both share. Youth of this age
also befriend on account of being engaged in same activities or having
similar set of skills, like through dance classes, football matches or
cheerleading. Adolescents unaffiliated with such activities might sometime
face isolation or have lesser chances of getting befriended easily. Physical
attractiveness is another factor that is critical in getting bonded at this
phase of development. Sadly in adolescence individuals have the tendency
to get connected with others depending on the factor like appearance.
Youth who not have the conventional appearance are often isolated or
bullied and have great risks to internalize anti-social behavior or depressive
behavior. Thus these factors do play a vital role in youths to determine
their choice of friends.
3. According to Rodgers and Rose study, the most salient finding with
respect to the resilience model is that peer support can buffer the effects
of low parental support on internalizing behaviors for adolescents from
divorced single parents families. One interpretation of this finding is that
more peer support leads to less internalizing behavior. However, another
plausible explanation is that adolescents with internalizing behaviors
attract less peer support. Why might that be the case?

Peer support often helps youths get over their harsh conditions at home
and also substitute parental support. Positive peer relationship helps youth
to decrease the development of a negative mind-set or internalizing anti-
social behavior. But there are instances where youth who exhibit anti-social
behavior or are depressive in nature are left alone or isolated and does not
get any peer support. Others mock them or tease them and sometimes
even bully them. So these at risk adolescents lack any kind of support and
their negative behavior internalizes at a higher rate which further damages
their possibility to bond with peers. In adolescence youth on a general basis
have the tendency to go against the norms and rebel against anything that
is not in accordance to their will. In such cases when they face social
rejection from their friends they are at a greater risk to develop prejudice
and negative behavior.
4. One core problem with the Cosden et al. study is that many members of
the control group actually did attend other forms of homework
assistance programs. Can you think of a way to deal with this issue?
Children attending after school homework assistance program are
expected to benefit and improve from such program. But how well the
program is affecting an individual child is difficult to determine due to
variable factors of the children, parents program and instructors,
[Cosden, Morrison, Albanese & Macias, 2001]. The study to find how a
after school homework program is affecting the child gets interfered as
may children are found to participate in similar programs. One way of
dealing with this situation is to create a controlled program by putting
certain restrictions. For instance, rules should be set like while taking up
this program, children cannot enroll in any such similar program. Also the
children have to maintain regularity in attendance and consistency in
submitting project. If members are found to violate these rules, strict
actions will be taken against them. Such controlled conditions might
prevent children from enrolling in other similar programs. This will also