Educational Progress in a Population of Youth with Aggression and Emotional Disturbance: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors

Youth with a pattern of aggression and emotional disturbance have well-described problems in a school setting. It is not known which particular psychosocial features of such high-risk populations best predict educational problems or progress. Comprehensive assessment of psychosocial resilience by inventorying known risk and protective factors has been shown to predict outcome in a variety of life domains in naturalistic, longitudinal studies of resilient high-risk children. In this study, we analyzed a number of risk and protective factors that were potentially predictive of educational progress in the male Willie M. population, a North Carolina group of youth with severe aggression and emotional disturbance. We found that several psychosocial protective factors, including good problem-solving skills, reading at or above grade level, ability to get along with peers and adults, likability, sense of humor, and having an adult mentor at school, were associated with positive educational progress. Substance use and living at home with the natural family were shown to have deleterious effects on school progress. The total number of protective factors was significantly associated with educational progress, whereas the total number of risk factors was unrelated to progress. These findings may have important implications for designing educational interventions for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders.