First Advisor

Bardos, Achilles

Document Type

Dissertation

Date Created

8-2022

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, School Psychology, School Psychology Student Work

Abstract

There is an academic achievement gap consistently observed in the literature between differential socioeconomic groups. Students who do well academically despite risk are academically resilient. Researchers investigating academic resilience have failed to incorporate contemporary resilience models into their research. The purpose of my study was to determine how dispositional, social, and school-based social protective factors interact and to evaluate their relationship with academic achievement as well as to examine cross-sectional differences in protective factors and academic achievement between students who were reared differential socioeconomic groups. Seven Structural Equation Models as well as Multivariate Analysis of Variance was used to investigate three research questions on a sample of 535 undergraduate students. Results of the Structural Equation Models showed significant positive relationships from social protective factors to dispositional (standardized parameter=.84; p=.00), school-based social protective factors (standardized parameter=.86; p=.00), from determination to academic achievement (standardized parameter=.21; p=.00), from self-esteem to academic achievement (standardized parameter=.18; p=.00), from self-concept to academic achievement (standardized parameter=.15; p=.00), and from connection to school to academic achievement (standardized parameter=.24; p=.00). Results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance showed a significant group difference between low, median, and high socioeconomic groups (F=1.90; p=.005; η2=.073; observed power=.99) in academic achievement (F(2, 323) = 7.22; p=00; η2 = .04), connection to school (F(2, 323) = 5.10; p=01; η2 = .03), neighborhood inputs (F(2, 323) = 3.35; p=02; η2 = .02), community protective factors (F(2, 323) = 3.95; p=02; η2 = .02), and teacher and staff support (F(2, 323) = 3.00; p=05; η2 = .02). Results add to the current literature in that they demonstrate significant, cross-system relationships between protective factors as well as between protective factors and academic achievement. These results should be used to inform future research be considered in intervention development to ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to achieve academically.

Extent

213

Local Identifiers

Kitchin_unco_0161D_10914.pdf

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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