John Allan & Jim McKenna Psychological Resilience: Human Performance, Wellbeing and Health Thursday 14 July 2011 Psychological resilience and academic achievement in University Inductees Finance Uncertainty Homesickness Academic work Friendships Expectations Love life HE staff Other work

Slide # 2 Acknowledgements Projects supported by Leeds Metropolitan University research grants in Higher Education Assessment, Teaching & Learning John Allan Jim McKenna

The tightrope of Higher Education (HE) Surviving Thriving Finance Uncertainty Homesickness Academic work Friendships Expectations Love life HE staff Other work Resilience : Balance and shifting along a continuum Links to competence and growth New students – gender differences and achievement

Higher Education (HE) in the UK , universities induct 23% more students into HE More students accessing HE % “Staying the Course”, House of Commons, 2008

Higher Education (HE) in the UK More students accessing HE % WP students unable to draw on wider social networks HE Statistics Agency, 2008

Higher Education (HE) in the UK 23% Education Briefing Book, 2008 More students achieving in HE 1996/ /7 2:1s & Firsts 7%

Higher Education (HE) in the UK 23% Female students achieve in HE 7% Higher Education Funding Council, % 12% more females than males in HE 6% more females complete 4% more females gain “Good degrees” (Firsts or 2:1)

Slide # 8 New HE students More mental ill-health in HE students compared with age- matched controls, related in part to HE stresses Royal College of Psychiatrists, in 10 don’t continue beyond first year, 2 in 10 don’t finish, despite £800 million since 2006 Staying the Course, House of Commons, 2008 Feelings of isolation, staff remoteness lack of timely & meaningful feedback Kirk & Gleaves, 2009

Resilience Maintaining internal well-being and adapting to the external environment Personal growth Bounce-back-ability Bounce-beyond-ability Capability in Uncertainty “Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” Piaget, 1963 Strong links to capability and competence in sports performance Mummery et al, 2004

Resilience Maintaining internal well-being and adapting to the external environment Personal growth Bounce-back-ability Bounce-beyond-ability Capability in Uncertainty “Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” Piaget, 1963 Strong links to capability and competence in sports performance Mummery et al, in the context of Higher Education

Resilience as a trajectory Norris et al (2009)

New students: Gender social Bravado and pseudo-resilience? New female students most anxiousCooke et al 2006 New female students most anxious Cooke et al 2006 Characterised by mutuality and seeking help Jordan, 2006 Characterised by mutuality and seeking help Jordan, 2006 Tend - Be-friend coping styles Relational resilience (Hartling, 2003) A higher variety of mental health issues Kleinfield, 2009 Reluctance for counselling - characterised by gender straitjacketing Pollack, 2006 Instrumental coping styles

Purpose  To profile the psychological resilience of inductees (sports students)  To establish relationship of baseline resilience with academic performance  Evaluate far transfer over the academic cycle

Design – Stage 1 Baseline of psychological resilience conducted over 4 consecutive years of 15 sports courses

Measuring Psychological Resilience A validated scale for young people (Connor-Davidson Scale, CD-RISC, 2003) ‘How have you felt about yourself over the PAST MONTH?’  Provides a single score (range 0 to 100)  Baseline profiles (total score & 5 subscales) Disagree Agree 1. When I make plans I follow through with them Disagree Agree 1. When I make plans I follow through with them Disagree Agree 1. When I make plans I follow through with them I could deal with whatever came along Not at all true True nearly all the time Disagree Agree 1. When I make plans I follow through with them Disagree Agree 1. When I make plans I follow through with them

Design – Stage 2 Two step cluster analysis for meaningful groupings rather than relationships between variables Females CD-RISC control, trust spirit, change competence Males CD-RISC control, trust spirit, change competence

Design – Stage 3 Clusters cross-tabulated with end of year grade classification Males high Resilience Males low lowResilienceFemaleshighResilienceFemaleslowResilience Fail 3rd 2:2 2:1 First

Resilience score,0-100 Results Stage 1: No mean resilience profile differences n=710n=775 Mean age SD 1.48 CD-RISC and Subscales (0-32 ) (0-24) (0-20) (0-16) (0-8)

Results Stage 1: Population Pyramid view

Results Stage 1: Males higher resilience 57% above mean 55% above mean

Results Stage 2: Four clusters of resilience: Means High resilience Low resilience Control Trust Spirit 5.35 Change Comp Control Trust Spirit 4.81 Change Comp Control 7.50 Trust Spirit 2.90 Change Comp Control 7.56 Trust Spirit 3.23 Change Comp CD-RISC (6.11) CD-RISC (5.87) CD-RISC (6.91) CD-RISC (8.19) 30.6% % % % 321 Clusters included all 15 sports courses, No cohort effect

% of Total Degree Classifications end of Year One Results Stage 3: Clusters and subsequent achievement

% of Total Degree Classifications end of Year One Results Stage 3: Clusters and subsequent achievement

Results Stage 3: Intra-cluster achievement High resilience Low resilience 75% fail, third and 2:2 categories 42% 2:1 & above, 12% fail or third Over 8 out of ten fail, third or 2:2 Over 8 out of ten 2:2, 2:1 or above

Limitations  Self-report measure may only provide insight into a complex area – resilience single element, multiple routes to adaptability  Sophisticated profiling of inductees inc qualitative data  Time lapse of measures – longitudinal interim measurement required in the context of learning behaviours (near transfer evaluation)

Summary  Significant numbers and courses  No gender profiles of resilience based on mean scores for subscales or clusters  Need to evaluate resilience and learning behaviours in context (resilience x environment)  10% of high resilience males gain a third or fail  Far transfer suggested for both clusters of females for university assessment  Relationship of resilience to first year achievement outcomes (resilience not universally equated to end of year profiles)

Thank you for your attention