Resilient students in the area of mathematics: Examining protective and risk factors in an emerging country

Abstract

The ability of children to face and overcome adverse social and educational conditions, presenting, in spite of that, good academic performance, is called socio-educational resilience. The objective was to determine protective and risk factors - on a personal and contextual level - regarding educational resilience in mathematics. The sample comprised resilient and non-resilient students, who took the chilean mathematics examen SIMCE between 2011 and 2015 (N≈65000). The analysis of the results was carried out using a multilevel logistic regression model, considering the hierarchical structure of the data. The results highlight self-efficacy in mathematics (1.71≤OR≤8.16) and general self-efficacy (self-confidence) (1.56≤OR≤2.41). as protective factors. Among the risk factors are lack of respect in the school environment and school violence (1.58≤OR≤ 2.66) and low participation in school and cultural activities (1.63≤OR≤3.83).