Resilience in school children – a multicultural comparison between three countries – croatia, sweden and portugal

Abstract

Culture and context are important for children's development, affecting, inter alia, resilience. The main aim of our research was to find out if resilience among school-aged children aged 10-12 differs between three countries – Croatia, Sweden and Portugal. The participants were 750 pupils from Croatian, Swedish and Portuguese schools, 54.5% boys and 45.5% girls. The instrument used was the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28). Descriptive statistics were computed, and one-way between--groups ANOVAs were performed. The CYRM total score, as well as the item scores, were high. Both differences and similarities between the three countries were found. Sweden and Portugal share the highest number of non-significant comparisons, followed by Croatia and Sweden. Croatia and Portugal have the least between-pair similarities. The results are discussed in the context of countries' needs for education for resilience and application of the resilience curriculum (RESCUR).