Carmel Cefai and Liberato Camilleri: Building Resilience in School Children: Risk and Promotive Factors amongst Maltese Primary School Pupils. European Centre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health – University of Malta, 2011. 231 pp.
Approximately nine per cent of nine-year-old children attending State and non-State schools in Malta are thought to exhibit social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD), according to a study conducted by Prof. Carmel Cefai, director of the European Centre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, and Dr Liberato Camilleri. This publication reports the findings of this study.
A worthwhile read for all those involved in policy-making and to practitioners in schools
Both Year 4 teachers and parents point to some predictors of SEBD. Among these predictors, the study highlights pupils’ relationships with peers, level of engagement (or lack of engagement) in learning, quality family time (or lack of it), father occupation, sense of classroom community and behaviour at home as the strongest predictors of SEBD in Year 4 classes.
On the other hand, a positive relationship with peers, gender, positive family relationships and healthy parent-teacher communication have been identified as strong predictors of pro-social behaviours.
Therefore, according to both teachers and parents, the pupils who most likely exhibit pro-social behaviours are girls who have a good relationship with peers, have high self-esteem and self-efficacy, and whose parents and teachers communicate well together; attend classrooms where pupils are kept active at all times; are well behaved at home and come from families that provide quality time and have low levels of conflict.
This publication presents the findings in two parts. The first part provides a portrait of pupils’ behaviour and predictors leading to such behaviour. The second part of the book presents the findings of a longitudinal study examining how both SEBD and pro-social behaviour of pupils changed from when they were in Year 1 to Year 4 classes. It also shows how the changes could be attributed to individual, school, home and community factors.
From this report, it appeared that pupils who are most likely to exhibit SEBD as they progress through the years are pupils who attend schools with high levels of bullying; who come from single-parent families; who have poor communication skills; who have a poor relationship with teachers, peers, friends and parents; and who have parents who are stressed and have low academic expectations for them.
This publication concludes by highlighting the major findings, and provides recommendations for practice. Among the recommendations, the study emphasises the need to increase the pupils’ self-esteem, self-efficacy and communication skills; to provide a positive, supportive and engaging classroom environment; to promote visible positive parent-teacher collaboration; to encourage active engagement in learning, encourage collaboration and a sense of community in the classroom and finally work towards developing collaborative and supportive schools where pupils are kept productively active, happy and safe.
This publication is a worthwhile read for all those involved in policy-making and to practitioners in schools who would like to promote a positive conducive to learning environment.
This study draws a strength-based perspective of challenging behaviour and examines the promotive factors contributing to the children’s well-being.
Colin Calleja is a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta and European Coordinator of the Let Me Learn Centre.