Exploratory study of "turnaround" process of at-risk youths

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to examine the protective factors at work in a group of pupils who had experienced a ‘turnaround’ fiom problematic school behaviour to succeeding in school. In particular, the current study investigated which eight protective factors were perceived to be most important to the group of pupils. These factors include individual factors (academic competence, internal locus of control), familial factors (family cohesion, lack of marital conflict, mother-adolescent communication, father-adolescent communication), and social environmental factors (relationship with positive peer, significant relationship with non-parental adult).