Resilience and Adolescents Educational Advancement among Secondary School Students in Mbanga Sub Division, Cameroon

Abstract

The focus of this study was on Resilience and Adolescence Educational Advancement in Secondary Schools in Mbanga Sub Division Cameroon. The main objective was to find out the role of self-concept a component of resilience on the educational advancement of adolescence. Self-concept was operationalized in terms of; knowledge about and belief about self; self-ability and taking personal initiative, overcoming difficulties and identifying negative aspect of self. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative method for data collection. Purposive and simple random techniques were used in selecting the participant. The sample comprised of 260 students from three secondary schools involving 151 (58.1%) female and 109 (41.9%) male between the ages of 12-19 years. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 23.0) with the aid of descriptive and inferential statistics.  Spearman’s rho test and Chi-square test were the inferential statistical tests adopted for the study .Chi-square test was used and the qualitative data was analyzed using the thematic analysis technique with the aid of themes, groundings/frequency and quotations. The findings revealed that: majority of the adolescents 256(98.5%) have good knowledge and belief and their self-ability. For overcoming difficulties and identifying negative aspects of self, 233(89.6%) affirmed that they can easily identify negative things about themselves. Also, majority of the adolescents 225 (86.5%) agreed that they always take initiative to overcome difficult situation in their life. In all the finding showed that (68.3%) of the adolescence have positive self-concept while (37.1%) of them have negative self-concept. Those with positive self-concept also have a high passion for educational advancement. Self-concept was found to have a significant relationship with educational advancement of adolescence. Some recommendations were made especially that guidance counsellors in schools should assist students in building a positive self-concept which will enable them to remain more resilient and focused on their educational engagements.