Academic risk and resilience for children and young people in Asia

Abstract

In studies of academic resilience, researchers seek to identify factors that protect against adverse effects caused by risk and stress, and which ultimately assist students to be academically successful. However, because relatively few studies are conducted in Asian settings, Western-based research may have limited application for policy and prevention in the Asian context. It is therefore important to expand the context and culture in which resilience research takes place. This paper highlights academic resilience factors among Asian students that are located in the multiple levels of the social ecology (including individual, peers, family and school). This is consistent with results from the Western context. However, it also reports on some differences in academic resilience factors that are found both within Asian countries and between Asian and Western countries. From these results, we might thus conclude that alongside pan-human factors, Asian students’ academic success can also be considered in part due to uniquely Asian attributes. This reaffirms the importance of considering culture and national context in studies of academic resilience. Taken as a whole, this collection of papers showcases multiple approaches to building academic resilience and empowering students and their educators and caregivers across the Asian region.

Keywords:

• Academic resilience
• Asian countries
• children
• cross-culture

Introduction

In the past several decades, many Asian countries, particularly East Asian countries, have experienced rapid and dramatic change in economic and social development (Akhtar, Hahm, & Hasan, 2016). The transition from traditional agriculture towards an industrial, export-based economy, increasing numbers of Asian families shifting from poverty into the middle class, changing family structure and the growing gap between the rich and the poor, have brought about dramatic change in people’s lives in this region. Moreover, the large population in Asia (4.6 billion – more than a half of the world) has exerted significant pressure on national resources and has also necessitated the expansion of education. All these transformations have had great impact on the well-being of individuals and families. For example, in the top five rich Asian countries and regions (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, China and South Korea), academic competition is extremely strong (e.g. ‘cram schools’ have become prevalent and excessive homework and study are common) (Lu, 2013; The Economist, 2015).

Despite these changes and challenges, many Asian countries are placed in the top global education rankings across various subjects and the gap in educational outcomes between Asian and Western countries appears to be growing (OECD, 2014, 2016). It is also interesting to note that, among those Asian children who achieved excellence, it appears they are just as likely to come from either a wealthy or disadvantaged family (OECD, 2010).

Taking both Asian challenges and successes into account, in this issue we address the question as to what makes Asian students academically successful despite the challenges and difficulties they may face. Or, put another way, what contributes to Asian students’ academic resilience? Understanding the processes involved in academic resilience will provide conceptual and practical tools for reducing the intergenerational cycle of poor academic achievement, poor job prospects and poverty for students who struggle in their academic or non-academic lives. It will also provide tools for sustaining the academic success of those who are travelling well through school (and beyond). More broadly, we suggest answers to our questions hold implications for the further development of human capital and societal stability in Asia.

In studies of academic resilience (defined as academic competence despite being at high risk or located in stressful environments; Martin, 2002; Masten, 1994) in Asia, many have suggested that cultural differences are a fundamental reason for the achievement gap between Asian and Western students. For example, Pope-Davis, Liu, Toporek, and Brittan-Powell (2001) and Breitenstein (2013) attributed the school success of Asian children to Asian attributes such as scholarship, valuing of education, industriousness, discipline and parents’ own values for education. Indeed, parental academic demands, fear of academic failure and academic competitiveness are some of the main factors considered responsible for fuelling Asia’s academic ascension (Breitenstein, 2013). Past studies have shown that, Asian children are encouraged to be self-reliant in the face of ‘academic failure’ (Lee & Ng, 2008) and have a stronger emphasis on effort than on ability compared to peers in the Western context (Hau & Salili, 1996; Lau & Chan, 2001). Asian students and Chinese students tend to regard their schoolwork as a duty towards their parents and therefore often feel anxious about their exams or assignments, or have a sense of parent-related guilt in the event of failure (Martin & Hau, 2010; Mizokawa & Ryckman, 1990). It has thus been argued that such different orientations to effort, ability, success and failure among Asian students have implications for academic resilience.

However, although previous studies have enhanced our understanding of risk and resilience in Asia, two issues require further empirical attention. First, thus far these studies have offered only a preliminary snapshot of how education in different cultural backgrounds helps foster Asian students’ resilience. A more comprehensive understanding of how Asian culture and context influence academic resilience is necessary. Second, given that Asian students often face quite complex challenges to learning such as poverty, excessive academic competition, disruptive home environments, and increased migration, understanding the factors that promote academic resilience in such social and educational ecologies is important and timely.

Social and educational ecology framework for academic resilience

Literature regarding individuals’ functioning within ecological systems has continued to grow since early conceptualising in the 1970s. The ecological theories of human development (e.g. Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lerner & Ohannessian, 1999; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998) point out that an individual’s life is embedded in a complicated developmental system that involves multiple features of the individual (e.g. one’s biological make-up, emotions, personality and cognition) and multiple levels of the social ecology including peers, family, school and community. That is, individuals do not develop and act independently; their experiences are always connected to the lives of significant others and are always affected by nested social systems.

The earlier resilience studies tended to focus on intrinsic individual characteristics but were considered somewhat limited in contributing to our understanding of the social contexts that are relevant to differences within and between different populations (Ungar, 2012a, 2012b). Therefore, recent studies on resilience have shifted focus from intrinsic characteristics of the individual (that some individuals have and others do not), to the interactions between individuals and their social ecologies (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Masten et al., 1999; Rutter, 1999; Ungar, 2008).

For example, it has been found that partnerships among the school and family may increase students’ chances of success by alleviating potential family stressors that can adversely impact academic and personal success. Constructive connections between family and school (the most influential systems for young people) have been shown to enhance children’s motivation to learn. Sun, Dunne, Hou, and Xu (2013) and Li, Martin, Armstrong, and Walker (2011) found that a supportive school environment is especially significant to students experiencing family-related adversities. For example, when Chinese adolescents are in difficult or problematic family environments (e.g. poor parental supervision and family conflict), pro-social involvement in school and positive school expectations can be activated to prevent or mitigate poor academic achievement (Li et al., 2011).

The purpose of this Special Issue

The booming economy and large population make the study of Asia more important than ever. Moreover, there are vast contextual and cultural differences both within Asian countries and between Asian and Western countries and so it is important to expand resilience research to accommodate the nature of these differences in context and culture. The articles in this Special Issue provide detailed and wide-ranging discussions to identify the nature and role of different educational contexts in Asia, the challenges that at-risk children face in these educational systems, how they cope, and what resilience looks like in these contexts. Just as much we have learned a great deal from research in Western contexts, this Special Issue seeks to offer the West insights into the generality (or otherwise) of risk and resilience factors among children and young people in Asia. This collection is intended for a wide audience, but particularly for those who are in a position to shape and conduct research, formulate public policy and deliver educational and human services.

This Special Issue has significant implications for research, theory, policy and practice in resilience. Firstly, the global resilience science informs intervention design, through successes and failures of efforts to deliberately promote resilience in different cultures and situational contexts. Adapting evidence-based practices created in one sociocultural context for application in another context can generate knowledge about the robustness as well as the limitations of an intervention. Secondly, through identifying risk and protective factors, intervention programmes can be better designed to increase protective resources, reduce children’s exposure to risk and thereby reduce the potential for negative outcomes. Thirdly, harnessing resilience as the knowledge base for practice provides a foundation for optimism and hope. Approaching resilience in this way empowers those working with at-risk children to convey this optimism and hope and offer a more positive and constructive outlook going forward. The Special Issue articles are organised into two sections: (a) Asia-based cross-cultural comparisons with regards to resilience and (b) academic resilience in specific Asian contexts (e.g. China, Singapore). The scholars in both sections address numerous important, timely and topical issues in the area of academic resilience, including the salient individual, family and school factors that ‘protect’ children from the negative academic effects of challenging circumstances and environments.

Asia-based cross-cultural comparisons with regards to academic resilience

Part I includes three papers that investigate the differences in academic resilience within Asian countries and between Asian and Western countries. The first two papers explore academic buoyancy (or ‘everyday’ academic resilience; Martin & Marsh, 2009) among secondary students from Asian and Western countries or cultural backgrounds. Part I begins with a paper by Martin, Yu, Ginns, and Papworth (2017) who point out that China has experienced a dramatic change in economic, social and educational development and hence is an ideal site for investigating academic buoyancy (the ability to respond to everyday academic challenges; Martin & Marsh, 2009) and adaptability (the capacity to make appropriate responses to changed or changing situations; VandenBos, 2015). They investigate these issues based on a sample of 12–16-year-old secondary school students from Asia (China) and Western countries (the USA, Canada and the UK). Results show that compared to Western peers, Chinese students reported higher mean levels of buoyancy and adaptability. They also found that buoyancy and adaptability positively and significantly correlated with academic engagement in all three countries and regions; however, academic buoyancy’s effects were significantly stronger for the Chinese students.

Collie, Ginns, Martin, and Papworth’s paper (2017) explored whether relations between academic anxiety and students’ use of a range of learning strategies (memorisation, elaboration, personal best goals, cooperation) were mediated by academic buoyancy. Through comparing different cultural backgrounds in the one country (English-speaking and Chinese-speaking high school students in Australia), the study found anxiety was positively associated with four learning strategies (memorisation, elaboration and personal best goals). In addition, there were mediation effects of academic buoyancy for the four learning strategies, but the mediation effects were broadly similar across the two language groups.

The third paper (Cheung, 2017) in Part I investigated differences in academic resilience within Asian countries, especially among students of the top five high-performing Asian countries/regions in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test (Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea). Interestingly, previous work has shown that although East Asian economies are stronger than economies in other Asian regions, there are still higher proportions of home-disadvantaged students in these cohorts. Also, a high share of disadvantaged students manages to overcome their adversities and hardships to achieve high scores in the PISA test (OECD, 2010). Accordingly, Cheung’s paper used data from PISA 2012 and found that variables like family and academic background, as well as resilience in learning mathematics (e.g. higher familiarity with mathematical concept, mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics self-concept, lower mathematics anxiety) were helpful in establishing academic resilience and preventing academic slackening in mathematical literacy in students. Although the five target East Asian countries or regions reflected relative homogeneity in cultural dimensions and topped the world in PISA 2012, they still showed some interesting differences in the variables studied in connection with mathematical literacy performance. Findings showed that grade repetition (for Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea) and years of study in kindergarten (for Shanghai and Singapore) were two valuable system-level protective factors of academic resilience in mathematical literacy.

Academic resilience in specific Asian contexts

The next three papers explore how academic resilience is built in specific Asian contexts, especially in two countries (Singapore and China) with top educational results in the PISA test. Part II begins with a paper focused on Singapore (Caleon et al., 2017). As Caleon et al. state,

Singapore is a unique research setting that can offer novel insights as it has a predominantly Chinese population that would likely gravitate towards Confucian values, yet its cosmopolitan environment serves as a melting pot of East and West cultural traditions. (p. 3)

Indeed, given that Singaporean secondary students outperformed other countries in 2015 PISA, exploring resilience factors among at-risk Singaporean students may have significant implications for other Asian countries. This paper explored the relative salience of students’ personal strengths and teacher support in predicting academic risk status. The participants were Grade 7 students from Singapore who scored below the cohort’s mean in a national test administered at the end of primary education, and were identified as low risk or high risk, based on their semester one achievement score in the English Language subject. Results showed that teacher trust (e.g. care, acceptance and trust from teachers) emerged as the strongest and most stable protective factor for students with high-risk status and that students’ feeling of alienation from teachers and poor teacher–student communication (students’ openness in communicating their ideas with teachers) were found to be significantly positive predictors of students’ placement in the high-risk group.

The second and third papers in Part II focused on mainland Chinese students. China has a large population, of some 1.37 billion people as at 2014 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2015). This represents 25% of the world’s population. At an aggregate level, it has relatively limited educational resources. Moreover, due to the high value of education among Chinese parents and the restricted hukou system regulating the population’s social and geographic mobility, education has long served as a great leveller of opportunity for changing one’s educational and career prospects and for achieving upward social mobility. These social, cultural and educational factors amplify academic competition and pressure, particularly for secondary school students.

Li’s (2017) paper explored what enables the academic resilience of Chinese students who perform well academically despite the challenges of their competitive academic environments. This study drew on a sample of 11th-grade Chinese students from two of the largest provinces participating in the competitive gaokao (national college entrance examination) in China. Three protective factors (parental supervision, school involvement and recognition and school expectation of behaviour/clear school code of conduct) in family and school settings were examined. Results showed that Chinese parents’ supervision and school involvement and recognition are significantly and negatively associated with students’ academic risk (e.g. low school commitment and individual conflict attitude), which are important protective factors in reducing adolescents’ risk of problem behaviours and promoting academic resilience. Finally, Yuan, Zhang, and Fu’s (2017) paper investigated the predictive role of thinking styles for academic stress coping among secondary school students in grades 7 through 12 from mainland China. Results showed that thinking styles (defined as an individual’s preferred ways of processing information and dealing with tasks) had statistically significant predictive power for academic stress-coping strategies beyond age and gender. Students who think more creatively and are more sophisticated cognitively in processing information were found to have better problem-solving skills, and were more strategic in making plans to solve the problems.

Conclusion

In studies of academic resilience, researchers seek to identify factors that protect against adverse effects caused by risk and stress, and which ultimately assist students to be academically successful. These factors typically include personal factors, environmental factors, or an interaction between personal and environmental factors. However, because relatively few studies are conducted in Asian settings, Western-based research may have limited application for policy and prevention in the Asian context. It is therefore important to expand the context and culture in which resilience research takes place – the major purpose of the proposed Special Issue. 

In terms of what factors are predictors of Asian students’ academic resilience, this Special Issue highlights the importance of taking a multidimensional approach to building academic resilience, with particular focus on the importance of empowering students to build and sustain their own resilience, and the role of context in helping them do this. We found similarities and differences in academic resilience factors among countries within the Asian region and between Asian and Western countries.

This Special Issue highlights academic resilience factors among Asian students that are located in the multiple levels of their social ecology (including individual, peers, family and school). This is consistent with results from the Western context. For example, as in the West, the roles of school and family are found to be critical to students’ capacity to deal with academic adversity (Li, 2017). Similarly, buoyancy and adaptability are also important resilience factors for students from both Eastern and Western contexts (Martin et al., 2017). However, some differences in academic resilience factors are also found both within Asian countries and between Asian and Western countries. For example, Chinese students report higher levels of buoyancy and adaptability than their Western counterparts (Martin et al., 2017). This is consistent with earlier findings that Asian children are more self-reliant (Lee & Ng, 2008), and have a stronger emphasis on effort and persistence than Western children (Hau & Salili, 1996; Lau & Chan, 2001). Similarly, personal strengths are found to be a salient factor in predicting academic risk status among Singaporean students (Caleon et al., 2017). From this Special Issue, we might thus conclude that alongside pan-human factors, Asian students’ academic success can also be considered in part due to Asian attributes such as valuing education, students’ industriousness, discipline and parents’ own values for education. This reaffirms the importance of considering culture and national context in studies of academic resilience.

Taken as a whole, this collection of papers showcases multiple approaches (e.g. prevention and interventions from family and school) to building academic resilience and empowering students and their educators and caregivers across the Asian region. The Special Issue takes stock of and builds on what is known from research and practice to improve our capacity to promote the resilience of Asian children who are faced with challenging personal and/or life circumstances.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the Asia Research Institute and Centre for Family and Population research of the National University of Singapore for providing financial, administrative, and research support for Dr Haibin Li and Professor Wei-Jun Jean Yeung to organize a conference entitled ‘Educational Resilience among Asian Children in Challenging Family Environment’ in Singapore on February 4–5, 2015, where the papers in this special collection were presented. We also want to express our profound gratitude to the expert reviewers for their invaluable feedback.