Purpose: Research documents that children from low-income families face higher risks in many areas of their development including academic performance. However, some children from low-income homes excel academically despite their disadvantaged environment. Method: Using Positive Deviance methodology (PD), audio-diary and interview data were collected from ten children who scored at least 70 percentile in school examinations in spite of their financial deprivation. Results: This paper uncovers specific dimensions of agency in these children that stemmed from the relational contexts they had with their mothers. Combining the PD methodology and sensitizing lens from Social Relational Theory, this study provided evidence that PD children are connected agents within their family. It suggests that children's awareness of their family circumstances motivated them to work hard and enabled them to devise creative ways to manage their limited financial resources. Conclusions: The findings challenge dominant discourses on poor children as passive victims and suggest new ways for practitioners to examine the relationship contexts that support children's capacity as agents rather than focusing on individual traits.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.