Perceived social support, depression and life satisfaction as the predictor of the resilience of secondary school students: The case of Burdur

Abstract

Problem statement: It has been observed that there are a limited number of studies on the resilience of primary and secondary school students in Turkey. However, it is acknowledged that secondary school students with difficult conditions of life also have to cope with rapid physical, psychological and social changes brought about by adolescence. For this reason, conducting research on the resilience characteristics of students within this age range would be an opportunity to enable them to acquire the abilities that will increase their resilience level. Moreover, the findings obtained from this research would contribute to the acknowledgement of protective factors, especially crisis response studies in the fields of psychological counseling and guidance services. Purpose of the Study: The general purpose of this research is to analyze perceived social support, depression and life satisfaction as predictors of the resilience of secondary school students of low socioeconomic levels. The examination of students' levels of resilience was based on gender, who they lived with, and whether their parents were together/separated and were alive/not alive. Method: The study group of the research consists of 386secondary school students. Of the students in the sample, 202 (52%) are girls, and 184 (48%) are boys. Of these students, 130 (34%) attend sixth-grade, 138 (36%) attend seventh-grade, and 118 (30%) attend eighth-grade. In this research used the relational screening method. To obtain the data for the Resilience Scale for Secondary School Students, The Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS), Social Support Appraisal Scale for Children and Adolescents and Depression Scale for Children were used. A t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and multi-standard linear regression analysis were used for data analysis in the research. Findings and Results: The results obtained from the research indicate that perceived social support and life satisfaction significantly predict resilience, whereas depression is not a significant predictor of resilience. Moreover, the resilience of students does not express a significant difference based on gender. The resilience levels of students who live with their parents and whose parents are together was found to be higher when compared to other students. Conclusions and Recommendation: First of all, in order to increase their resilience abilities, psychological training can be provided through counseling in schools for students who live with only one of their parents or their relatives. Within the scope of student personality services, various social support resources can be allocated for secondary school students whose parents have separated and the father/mother is/are not alive. Since social support and life satisfaction are important variables in regard to resilience, an appropriate education-teaching environment can be provided for such studies to be conducted at schools. İn considering schools as important social support elements, increasing school services that meet the needs of the students and transforming the school into an important living area that encourages students to love school can be useful. This can be achieved through sports activities, functional clubs, and creating environments where students can comfortably express themselves. İn order to increase resilience levels, psycho-training program start getting risk groups can be developed, and these programs can be experimentally tested. The most important restriction of this study is that the sample group consisted of students living in Burdur, a small city that does not receive many immigrants.