Using an Attributional Framework to Understand Resilience in Children in Public Care

1
Using an Attributional Framework to Understand
Resilience in Children in Public Care

• Dr Catherine Kelly
• Senior Educational Psychologist, London Borough
  of Barnet
• Tutor University College London

2
Resilience

• Resilience generally refers to a class of
  phenomena characterized by patterns of positive
  adaptation in the context of significant
  adversity or risk (Masten Reed, 2002, p. 75).
• less an enduring characteristic than a process
  determined by the impact of particular life
  experiences among persons with particular
  conceptions of their own life history or personal
  narrative (Cohler, 1987, p 406).

3
Mechanisms

• the cognitive and affective processing of
  experiences is likely to influence whether or not
  resilience develops (Rutter, 1990)

• what is most critical to subjective well-being
  is the tendency to make either positive or
  negative attributions of ones life emotions and
  life events'
• DeNeve and Cooper (1998)

4
Attributions

• Weiner (1979) proposes that the perceived causes
  of success and failure share three common
  properties
• locus, whether a cause in internal or external to
  the individual
• stability, which designates a cause as constant
  or varying over time and
• controllability, whether a cause is subject to
  volitional influence.
• distinctiveness and globality are also cited as
  other possible causal structures (Munton et al,
  1999)

5
Attributions

• I havent got any friends because
• .Im a horrible person.
• .they all hate me.
• .Im new.
• .theyre already in friendship groups.

6

• Optimism
• Unstable, specific, external
• Pessimism
• Stable, global, internal (Seligman, 1991)
• Self esteem
• Self efficacy
• Self-efficacy is the belief in ones capabilities
  to organize and execute the courses of action
  required to manage prospective situations
  (Bandura, 1997).

7
Method

• Between groups experimental design .
• Higher resilience (i.e. educationally successful)
  looked after adolescents
• Lower resilience (i.e. less educationally
  successful) youngsters
• A non -looked after control group.
• Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS )
• (Stratton et al, 1988)

8
I came into care because mum went into
hospital. I havent skived (from school) for
two years now (because) social services, they
were there for me.
9
 I get on well in lessons because teachers
explain things well. .I dont like the teachers
cos they pick on me.
10
I go there (school) to get a good education
because I want to get a good job when I am
older.       I wind the teachers up cos I get
bored
11
I get on with other kids because Im always
understanding. How come you can do the
worksheets? Ive just done most of them before.
12
 I dont always get on well in lessons because
sometimes I muck around with a few boys.Cos
Ive got ADHD, I cant concentrate.
13
Summary

• Looked after adolescents tended to see themselves
  more frequently as the target of others actions.
  However, high resilience (HR) looked after
  youngsters are more likely to see others actions
  as positive.
• HR resilience youngsters made more positive
  attributions and tended to perceive the causes of
  positive outcomes more optimistically.
• HR adolescents tended to make self-efficacious
  controllable attributions for internal causes.
• LR young people were more negative about peer and
  carer/parent relationships, and views of school.
  No significant differences in views of major life
  events, i.e. changing school/placement.

14
Implications

• Small changes in attributions make a difference
• Significant adults - attributions learned in
  relationships, and influence relationships
• Perceptions of everyday contexts are more
  influential in resilience than major life events,
  and relationships are a key factor in positive
  adaptation.
• Involvement in decision making
• Event debriefing

15
KIITOScatherine.kelly_at_barnet.gov.uk