Influence of Alienation, Educational Aspiration, and Teacher Connectedness on Resilience among Orphan and Non-orphan Adolescents: A Comparative Study

Description

Page: 259-266

Akilandeswari, M. and Annalakshmi, N. (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

Orphan adolescents are regarded as at-risk population, but some of them are able to thrive with their vulnerability. Several factors contribute to the risk and it is necessary to explore those factors that help in mitigating the risk and enhancing the resilience among orphan and non-orphan adolescents. The present study attempts to find whether alienation, educational aspiration, peer acceptance, and student-instructor relationship predict resilience among orphan and non-orphan adolescents. A purposive sample of 300 orphan adolescents from seven orphanages and 300 non-orphan adolescents from a private school located in a mid-sized city in South India were included in the present study. The age group of the participants ranged from 12-17 years and included both boys and girls. The participants completed self-report measures of alienation, educational aspiration, peer acceptance, student-teacher relationship, and resilience. One-way ANOVA results revealed that there was significant difference among orphan and non-orphan adolescents on resilience. Orphan adolescents had low resilience than non-orphan adolescents. Multiple linear regression analyses results revealed that among non-orphans, girls had low resilience than boys. Among the dimensions of alienation, meaninglessness negatively predicted resilience among both orphan and non-orphan adolescents, while social isolation negatively predicted resilience among orphan adolescents. Educational aspiration positively predicted resilience among orphan and non-orphan adolescents. Instructor connectedness positively predicted resilience only among non-orphan adolescents. Orphan and non-orphan adolescents report similar protective factor, but additionally influence of teachers was seen to be more significant for non-orphan compared to orphan adolescents. Interestingly, peer group had no influence on resilience of both cohorts.