Resilience during a Great Economic Recession: Social and Personal Resources for Youth’s Positive Adaptation in the School Context

Abstract

Introduction Greece was hit particularly hard by the latest economic recession. Method Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined whether and how psychosocial resources promoted and/or protected youth's school adjustment (academic achievement, school engagement, and conduct) and psychological well-being (absence of emotional symptoms) during the economic crisis. We focused on three family resources (family economic well-being, parental education, and school involvement) and one personal resource (self-efficacy). Data were collected with multiple methods and informants. We compared two cohorts of adolescents, closely matched through Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting, who lived in the same neighborhoods, one before (2005; N = 1057; age M = 12.7 years) and the other during (2013; N = 1052; age M = 12.6 years) the economic recession. Results Variable- and person-focused analyses revealed that in the context of the economic recession parental education and parental school involvement promoted and/or protected youth's school adjustment, and families' economic wellbeing was linked to both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Another key finding is that youth who exhibited positive adaptation during the economic crisis were equally well adjusted as youth who were well adjusted before the economic crisis, even though they had fewer resources. Finally, youth with more adequate psychosocial resources were able to keep the same high level of adaptation during the crisis as well-adjusted youth had before the crisis. The findings were robust regarding variations in gender and immigrant status. Conclusion The results suggest that psychosocial resources are important in understanding the diversity in youth's school adjustment and well-being during a major economic crisis.