Resilience in Australian Aboriginal secondary school students — Agentur Pty Ltd
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  3. Resilience in Australian Aboriginal secondary school students

Resilience in Australian Aboriginal secondary school students (82)

Scott Trindall 1 2 , Kate O'Brien 1 2 3 , Megan Freund 1 2 3 , Elizabeth Campbell 1 2 3 , Karen Gillham 1 2 , Rebecca Hodder 1 2 3 , Julia Dray 1 2 3 , Belinda Tully 1 2 3 , John Wiggers 1 2 3
  1. Hunter New England Population Health Unit, Tamworth, NSW, Australia
  2. Hunter Medical Research Institute, Hunter Region Mc, NSW
  3. The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW

Background:

Resilience means the capacity to bounce back from adversity. Resilience involves both internal factors (traits such as empathy and self-awareness), and external factors (connection to school, family and community) and has been linked to the likelihood of adolescents engaging in health risk behaviours. This study compared the resilience of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (hereafter referred to as Aboriginal) and non-Aboriginal secondary school students, and determined the association between resilience of Aboriginal students and connection to certain aspects of community and culture, and their perceptions of being treated unfairly because of being Aboriginal.

Methods:

Online surveys were undertaken by 10,035 students (grades 7 to 10) in 32 secondary schools (1160 Aboriginal, 8875 non-Aboriginal). The survey addressed demographic characteristics; Aboriginality; and Internal and External Resilience (IR and ER - assessed via the California Healthy Kids Survey). Aboriginal students were asked about issues related to engagement with their Aboriginal community and Aboriginal culture; whether their school values Aboriginal culture and community events; and their experience of being treated unfairly because of being Aboriginal. Logistic regression analyses were used, with models adjusted for clustering by school.

Results/Discussions:

Aboriginal students were less likely than non-Aboriginal students to have moderate/high (rather than low) IR and ER. Aboriginal students, who reported that Aboriginal culture and events were valued by their school, and those who had not been treated unfairly, were more likely to have moderate/high IR and ER. Aboriginal students who reported their community was caring and supportive were more likely to have moderate/high ER, and those indicating their community encouraged participation and involvement were more likely to have moderate/high IR.

Conclusions/implications:

Strategies are needed to increase resilience among Aboriginal students. Potential strategies include strengthening the connection to community and culture for Aboriginal students at school. Further research is required to determine the effectiveness of such strategies.

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