Investigating the relationship between resilience, self-efficacy and locus of control: designing an intervention program for primary school students
Resilience refers to an enduring and yet fluid personality characteristic that enhances individual adaptation. It is a dynamic developmental process, which is formulated by the interactions between individuals’ internal assets, environmental risks and protective factors. A factor that is related to and promotes resilience is self-efficacy, which is an individual’s belief in his/her ability to confront a particular situation. Another concept related to but different from self-efficacy is locus of control, which is one of the most basic personality characteristics and is divided into internal and external.
The aim of the present study is to examine the relation between resilience, self-efficacy and locus on control in children between the ages of 9 and 12 years old. Another goal of the study is to investigate whether self-efficacy and locus of control function as equal protective factors for the achievement of high resilience or whether self-efficacy acts as a mediator between locus of control and resilience. The ultimate aim of the present study is to utilize the results that will be extracted from the study in order to design a preventive intervention program for primary education (4th to 6th Grade), that will try to promote children’s resilience, enhance their self-efficacy and formulate a healthy internal locus of control.
To investigate the relationship between the variables, the following questionnaires will be administered to students: (1) Resilience Youth and Development Module [RYDM] (Constantine & Benard, 2001), (2) The Nowicki- Strickland life-span locus of control scales (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973), (3) New Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (Chen et al., 2001).
Upon completion of the statistical analysis of the data (IBM SPSS Statistics, version 26.0) and the conclusions about the relationship between the variables under study, an intervention program will be designed whose aim will be to strengthen students’ resilience by enhancing their self-efficacy and helping them adopt an internal locus of control.
The intervention program will utilize the principles of cognitive behavioral approach, according to which, when people face an adversity or difficulty, they experience maladaptive behavioral responses and/or experience negative emotional states due to dysfunctional cognitions. Some indicative thematic units which will be included in the intervention program for resilience enhancement, that will be proposed in the context of the present research, refer to cultivating and maintaining healthy relationships, improving communication skills, developing self-confidence, recognizing andexpressing emotions, coping with stress, managing conflict and solving problems effectively. The implementation of the program will be universal, that is, it will be addressed to all students in the school community, it will be administered by psychologists, social workers and specially trained teachers, and will include a series of interactive exercises and experiential activities.
Keywords: resilience, self-efficacy, locus of control, intervention program, primary education
