Investigating the reciprocal relations between academic buoyancy and academic adversity: Evidence for the protective role of academic buoyancy in reducing academic adversity over time

Abstract

What is the relationship between academic buoyancy and academic adversity? For example, does the experience of academic adversity help build students’ academic buoyancy in school—or, does academic buoyancy lead to decreases in subsequent academic adversity? This longitudinal study of 481 high school students (Years 7–12) investigated the relations between academic buoyancy and academic adversity. Harnessing a cross-lagged panel design spanning two consecutive academic years, we employed structural equation modeling to investigate the extent to which prior academic buoyancy predicted subsequent academic adversity and the extent to which prior academic adversity predicted subsequent academic buoyancy—beyond the effects of sociodemographics, prior achievement, and auto-regression. We found that prior academic buoyancy significantly predicted lower subsequent academic adversity, but prior academic adversity did not significantly predict higher subsequent academic buoyancy. Interestingly, however, there was a marginal interaction effect such that students who experienced academic adversity but who were also high in academic buoyancy were less likely to experience academic adversity one year later. We conclude that it is important to instill in students the capacity to effectively deal with academic adversity—that is, academic buoyancy. We also conclude that some experience of academic adversity can have positive effects but predominantly when accompanied by high levels of academic buoyancy. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

EFL/ESL Teacher’s Resilience, Academic Buoyancy, Care, and Their Impact on Students’ Engagement: A Theoretical Review

“…Academic buoyancy has stemmed from PP which has put its emphasis on the role of emotions in education (Agudo, 2018). In academic contexts which are full of adversities, buoyancy refers to an individual's ability to navigate and cope with the difficulties that occur (Martin and Marsh, 2019). It is a psychological construct which mirrors the routine academic setbacks in a positive context (Jahedizadeh et al, 2019).…”

Achievement emotions and academic achievement: Reciprocal relations and the moderating influence of academic buoyancy.

“…Finally, Martin and Marsh (2019) found a marginally significant effect (β = -.13, p = .10) of the interaction between academic buoyancy and academic adversity on subsequent academic adversity in a sample of secondary school students. The positive relation between prior and later academic adversity, a year apart, was weaker at higher academic buoyancy in keeping with its theorized adaptive nature.…”

“…Fourth, a curious finding reported by Martin and Marsh (2019) was that academic buoyancy exerted a greater protective role for academic adversities reported 12 months later than with current academic adversities. This finding is in line with the view that some exposure to adversity is necessary in order for persons to build adaptive responses.…”

Introduction to the special section on the development of motivational resilience in school

“…The first paper in this special section is authored by Martin and Marsh, whose work on academic buoyancy and everyday academic resilience (Martin & Marsh, 2008, 2009) has set a high bar for all research in this area. In the current study, Martin and Marsh (2020) use a cross-lagged panel design spanning two consecutive school years to explore the potentially reciprocal effects between high school students’ academic buoyancy and the adversity they experience. As usual, these researchers have put their finger on a key issue: If students experiencing low levels of adversity show increases in subsequent buoyancy, at the same time that those high in buoyancy show decreases in the adversity they subsequently experience, then these feedforward and feedback loops may together reflect a pattern of virtuous or vicious cycles that can shape trajectories of motivational resilience during this developmental period.…”