Resilience in School Children – A Multicultural Comparison between Three Countries – Croatia, Sweden and Portugal

Abstract

Culture and context are important for children's
development, affecting, inter alia, resilience. The main aim
of our research was to find out if resilience among schoolaged children aged 10-12 differs between three countries –
Croatia, Sweden and Portugal. The participants were 750
pupils from Croatian, Swedish and Portuguese schools,
54.5% boys and 45.5% girls. The instrument used was the
Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28).
Descriptive statistics were computed, and one-way between-
-groups ANOVAs were performed. The CYRM total score, as
well as the item scores, were high. Both differences and
similarities between the three countries were found. Sweden
and Portugal share the highest number of non-significant
comparisons, followed by Croatia and Sweden. Croatia and
Portugal have the least between-pair similarities. The results
are discussed in the context of countries' needs for education
for resilience and application of the resilience curriculum
(RESCUR).