Journal for Transformative
Action Research

John Bilorusky, President, Western Institute for Social Research, Berkeley

Welcome to the Inaugural Edition of the Journal of Transformative Action Research. We are fortunate to have a variety of extremely well-done and interesting articles here. They reflect many of the important features found in the varied landscape of transformative action research. Rather than my presuming to highlight my thoughts about some outstanding qualities in each specific article, I’d like to instead invite you to reflect on my depiction of the journal’s theme, while reading each article.

For sixty years, after completing an undergraduate degree in physics, I have devoted much of my career inthe social sciences, to promoting innovation and to creating new alternatives in higher education. In these endeavors, I have learned much about action-research, and have developed insights about what I believe distinguishes especially thoroughgoing and impactful action-research efforts (which I now refer to as “transformative action research”) from standard brand social science research. Most of my insights are the results of having had the good fortune to have collaborated with some very creative, social justice-committed, and inquiring colleagues from varied walks of life.

The word “transformative” in “transformative action research” means a number of things.

First, action and research, or action and inquiry, transform each other, where each, action and inquiry, is adifferent emphasis, but still part of a yin-yang sort of whole. Consider also, “imaginative and reflective action”which refers to inquiring aspects of action, or “engaged and involved inquiry” which refers to the action-oriented qualities of research and inquiry.

Second, “transformative action research” leads to some changes that “matter,” that are meaningful, valuable, and useful for an individual, a group, an organization, a community, and/or the larger society.

“Transformative” action research is not based on a formula or cut and dried processes, but often uses improvised strategies, still based on solid principles of inquiry. It may often lead to significant changes, and even if the changes are small, they may not merely be incremental ones along already well-known paths, but instead lead to fundamentally different directions and outcomes.

The strategies and special qualities of action-research include, for example:

• An emphasis on asking “new” questions,
• Looking as much to “learn more” about the questions, and coming up with new questions, as expecting to “answer” the questions,
• Cherishing not just finding themes and patterns, but also uncovering “exceptions to the rule” which often lead to deeper and unanticipated insights,
• Being concerned with specific, practical matters that affect people every day, also being mindful of the “bigger picture”—how that affects us and how we may need to try to impact the larger dynamics and circumstances at play (think social justice, and nurturing empathy and inclusiveness for all, for example).
• Focusing on substance, rather than accepted conventions—this can mean, gathering certain data not because it’s the way we are “supposed to gather it” but because the data gathered are likely to be illuminating, given our purposes and
• Writing in our own voices, in ways that engage others, not to conform by communicating with what I refer to as “academic monkey ”
• Looking for opportunities to collaborate with others, because in many collaborative endeavors, there can be creative magic (it’s no wonder that most Nobel Prizes are awarded to those who have collaborated on a breakthrough in the “hard” sciences).
• Pursuing the worthy goal of “validity” not by dutifully performing statistical tests dictated by convention, but instead by transparently communicating to others what we did in our action-and-inquiry, and articulating how and why we came to the insights, solutions, and further questions we came to . . . then others can decide the extent and ways in which our efforts are “valid.”

Finally, beyond the scope of researching and writing for publication, I would suggest that any one of us can inquire into the meaning of something we notice or observe, read in the papers, or see on TV or theinternet. “Inquiry” can the connotation of critical and/or imaginative thinking–not unlike Archimedes’ unanticipated insight in his bathtub, whereupon he reportedly ran down the street naked shouting “Eureka!” That is an example of “action-and-inquiry–the action of stepping into the water, with the observation of the levelof the water rising and this resulting in his insight about the solution of the problem of how to measure thevolume of an irregularly shaped object. Each and every one of us can increase our likelihood of such “Eureka (I’ve found it!)” experiences by making a regular practice of trying to engage in transformative action-and-inquiry, whether in formal projects or as part of our everyday lives.

I hope you enjoy the outstanding articles in this edition–and consider submitting your own article for a future issue, and/or become a regular reader of this Journal of Transformative Action Research. I welcome your comments (email: johnb@wisr.edu).

Adolescents’ Hopes and Fears in Times of Ongoing War

Shirli Shoyer* & Nurit Kaplan-Toren Oranim College, Haifa, Israel

*Contact: sshirli@gmail.com

Abstract

Future orientation during adolescence represents a critical developmental process, particularly under conditions of ongoing threat. This study examined the hopes and fears of Israeli Jewish adolescents during a prolonged period of warfare. Participants were 93 adolescents (ages 17-18; 52% female) from three urban schools in northern Israel, assessed 14-15 months into the ongoing conflict. Using Seginer’s (1988) Hopes and Fears Questionnaire, 256 open-ended statements were collected and analyzed through qualitative deductive coding across five life domains: School and Matriculation, Military Service, Education and Career, Marriage and Family, and State and Society. Results revealed that Marriage and Family (28.5%) and Education and Career (25.4%) were the dominant future thinking,followed by Military Service (23.4%). Overall, hopes exceeded fears (60% vs. 40%), suggesting that optimism was maintained despite prolonged exposure to warfare. Gender differences emerged across multiple dimensions: female adolescents contributed 62% of all statements. They generated 89% of fears in the State and Society domain, whereas males exceeded females only in the Military Service domain (58% vs. 42%). Self-focused orientation predominated (72%), except in the State and Society domain, where collective concerns emerged (66%). Findings demonstrate adolescent resilience and highlight the intrusion of collective wartime concerns into future orientation, particularly among female adolescents.

Introduction

Future orientation, defined as individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations concerning anticipated events and goals (Seginer, 2008), represents a central developmental task during adolescence, serving as a psychologicalbridge between present identity formation and adult roles (Nurmi, 1991). On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unprecedented large-scale attack on Israel, resulting in over 1,200 civilian deaths, more than 5,000 injuries, and the abduction of 250 individuals, constituting one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history in per-capita terms (Levi-Belz et al., 2024). The subsequent Swords of Iron War has continued as an ongoing armed conflict, creating aprolonged state of collective threat that has profoundly reshaped the daily lives of Israeli youth. Within 14–15 months of the onset of hostilities, rates of probable PTSD among Israeli adolescents had risen sharply, with social support and personal resilience emerging as critical protective factors (Shoshani & Cohen, 2025). Understanding howadolescents construct future orientation within this uniquely severe and politically charged context is bothdevelopmentally and socially urgent. Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) ecological systems theory provides an essential framework for interpreting these findings: at the macrosystem level, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the post-October 7 political reality constitute structural forces that fundamentally shape every domain of adolescent development; at the exosystem level, governmental decisions about military mobilization and educational policy directly affect adolescents; and at the microsystem level, family displacement, bereavement, and peer loss alter the proximal developmental context. Gender differences further characterize future orientation: female adolescents articulate their future thinking with greater elaboration and emotional depth, particularly regarding relational domains, whereas males focus more on instrumental achievement domains (Seginer, 2009). The current studyexamined the hopes and fears of Israeli Jewish adolescents (ages 17–18) after 14–15 months of ongoing warfare, investigating how gender and life domains shape future orientation content under these socio-politically distinctive circumstances. This research addressed three questions: (1) What life domains characterize adolescents’ future orientation during wartime? (2) How are hopes and fears distributed across these domains? (3) What gender differences emerge in the target domains’ focus, and in relation to the hope-fear balance? 

Literature Review

Adolescent Future Orientation: Theoretical Framework

Future orientation refers to how adolescents think about and plan for their upcoming lives (Seginer, 2009). Seginer’s model describes this construct through three interconnected components. First, the cognitive component includes adolescents’ thoughts, hopes, and concerns about specific life areas, such as education, career, and family (Seginer, 2019). Second, the motivational component involves how much adolescents value their future goals, whether they believe they can achieve them, and how much control they feel over their outcomes (Seginer, 2008). Third, the behavioral component reflects the actions adolescents take to explore different options and commitments tospecific paths (Seginer, Nurmi, & Poole, 1991). These three components work together to shape how youth engagewith their anticipated futures. Importantly, future orientation does not develop in a vacuum. According to Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) bioecological theory, adolescents construct their future expectations across multiple environmental layers, from immediate family and peer contexts to broader cultural and societal influences. This ecological perspective highlights that understanding adolescent future orientation requires examining both individual psychological processes and the social contexts that shape them (Jones et al., 2024 ;Lindstrom Johnson, Blum, & Cheng, 2014).

The Developmental Significance of Future Orientation in Adolescence

Future orientation becomes particularly important during adolescence for several reasons. Cognitively, adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly about hypothetical scenarios and connect present actions to futureoutcomes (Steinberg, 2008). At the same time, society expects them to make significant decisions about their education and career paths (Nurmi, 1991). Research shows that adolescents with stronger future orientation performbetter academically, show greater persistence, and engage more deeply in their studies (Pawlak & Moustafa, 2023; Peng & Zhang, 2022). Beyond academic success, future orientation also protects against adverse outcomes. Adolescents who maintain positive future expectations show better resilience when facing peer victimization,behavioral problems, or socioeconomic challenges (Cui et al., 2020; Hong et al., 2021; Rydell et al., 2024). The protective effect operates through motivation: when adolescents see their current efforts as meaningful steps toward valued future goals, they make better decisions and show greater self-control (Seginer, 2009). This connection between present and future helps adolescents navigate developmental challenges and move successfully toward adulthood.

Gender Differences in Future Orientation

Research consistently documents gender differences in how adolescents construct and express their future orientation. Studies show that girls typically generate more elaborate future-oriented statements and demonstrategreater engagement with future thinking compared to boys (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). These differences appear across multiple dimensions of future orientation, including the content of future representations, the emotionalelaboration of hopes and fears, and the specific life domains adolescents prioritize (Nurmi, 1991). Girls tend to think about their futures more frequently and with greater emotional depth, particularly regarding relational domains suchas family and interpersonal relationships (Seginer, 1992). In contrast, boys often focus more on instrumental domains such as career achievement and financial success (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018).

Gender differences also emerge in how adolescents express concerns about their futures. Research indicates that girls articulate more fears and worries about future outcomes, potentially reflecting greater emotional expressiveness or heightened awareness of potential obstacles (Nurmi, 1991). However, these differences should not be interpreted as indicating that one gender has more positive or negative future orientation overall, but rather that girls and boys may approach future thinking through different lenses shaped by socialization patterns and cultural expectations (Seginer, 2019). The literature suggests that gender socialization processes influence which life domainsreceive priority attention, with girls more oriented toward relational concerns and boys more focused on achievementand status domains (Seginer, 1992). Understanding these gender patterns becomes particularly important when examining future orientation in contexts of stress or uncertainty, where gender may influence both the content and the emotional valence of adolescents’ future representations.

Life Domains in Adolescent Future Orientation

Future orientation does not develop as a singular, undifferentiated construct but instead unfolds across distinctlife domains that reflect the developmental tasks and social expectations of adolescence and emerging adulthood(Seginer, 2009). Cross-cultural research has identified a core set of domains that adolescents consistently include in their future thinking: higher education, work and career, and marriage and family (Seginer, 2019; Seginer, Nurmi, &Poole, 1991). These domains represent the prospective life course, the trajectory adolescents anticipate as they transition toadulthood. Higher education serves as a gateway to occupational opportunities and represents adolescents’ aspirations for intellectual development and social mobility (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). Work and career domains encompass both instrumental concerns about financial security and expressive concerns about finding meaningful work that aligns with personal interests and values (Nurmi, 1991). Marriage and family domains reflect adolescents’ relationalaspirations, including desires for intimate partnerships, parenthood, and family formation (Seginer, 2009).

Beyond these universal domains, adolescents also incorporate context-specific concerns reflecting their particular circumstances. For Israeli adolescents, military service represents an additional salient domain due to mandatory conscription requirements (Seginer, 2008). School and matriculation examinations constitute another near-future domain that occupies adolescents’ thinking, particularly as they approach graduation milestones (Nurmi, 1991). Some adolescents also exhibit future orientation toward broader societal and collective concerns, thinking beyond personal outcomes to consider national challenges, social issues, and global problems (Seginer, 2019).

The relative importance adolescents attribute to different domains varies across cultural contexts, developmental stages, and individual circumstances. Research shows that the temporal extension of future thinking, how far into the future adolescents project their hopes and concerns, differs across domains, with some goals situated in the near future (such as completing high school) and others extending into distant adulthood (such as establishing a family) (Nurmi, 1991). Each domain may also engage different psychological processes. For example, career-related future thinking may emphasize exploration and information-seeking, while family-related thinking mayinvolve more emotional investment and relational concerns (Seginer, 2009). Understanding future orientation withinspecific life domains allows for more nuanced examination of how adolescents navigate multiple developmental tasks simultaneously and how they prioritize competing goals as they construct their anticipated life trajectories.

Positive and Negative Future Orientation: Hopes and Fears

Future orientation encompasses both positive expectations (hopes) and negative expectations (fears) that together constitute adolescents’ mental representations of what lies ahead (Seginer, 2009). This dual nature reflects the complexity of thinking about an uncertain future, as adolescents simultaneously envision desired outcomes and contemplate potential obstacles or negative scenarios. Seginer’s framework conceptualizes hopes and fears as distinct but interrelated components of the cognitive dimension of future orientation, with each contributing unique information about how adolescents engage with their anticipated futures (Seginer, 2008).

Research indicates that the balance between hopes and fears carries developmental significance, with predominantly hopeful future orientation associated with better adjustment and more adaptive behavior, while excessive fearfulness may indicate psychological distress or environmental constraints (Nurmi, 1991; Seginer, 2008). However, some level of concern about the future appears normative and may even be adaptive, as it motivates preparatory behaviors and realistic planning (Seginer, 2008). The literature suggests that psychologically healthy adolescents maintain a balance between optimistic hopes and realistic awareness of potential challenges, rather than exhibiting either unbridled optimism or pervasive pessimism (Nurmi, 1991).

The content of hopes and fears varies across life domains. In educational and career domains, hopes typically center on achievement and success, while fears focus on failure or missed opportunities (Nurmi, 1991). Boys may express hopes for financial success and entrepreneurial ventures, while girls may emphasize finding meaningful workthat aligns with interests (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). In relational domains such as marriage and family, hopes emphasize relationship quality and family formation, while fears may involve loneliness or relationship dissolution (Seginer, 2009). Gender differences appear in these expressions, with girls often articulating more detailed relational hopes and concerns (Seginer, 1992).

The ratio of hopes to fears may also shift in response to contextual circumstances. Research on future orientation during periods of threat or challenge suggests that adolescents facing adversity may maintain hopeful future thinking as a resilience mechanism, even while acknowledging realistic concerns (Seginer, 2008). This capacity to hold both positive and negative future expectations simultaneously, to hope while also worrying, may represent psychological maturity and realistic engagement with an uncertain future (Seginer, 2009). Some studies suggest that maintaining hope despite acknowledging real threats demonstrates adaptive coping and psychological resilience (Seginer, 2008).

Gender differences also appear in the expression of hopes and fears. Research suggests that girls express more hopes and fears than boys, reflecting greater overall engagement with future-oriented thinking rather than simplymore negative or positive outlooks (Seginer, 1992). This pattern may reflect gender socialization that encourages girls to express their emotions more openly and to reflect on future possibilities (Chaplin& Aldao, 2013). Understanding the balance and content of adolescents’ hopes and fears provides important insights into their psychological well-being and their capacity to navigate developmental challenges.

Self, Others, and Collective Orientations in Future Thinking

Beyond examining which life domains adolescents consider, research also examines the existential focus of future orientation, whether adolescents think primarily about personal outcomes (self), significant others (others), or collective societal outcomes (collective) (Seginer, 2009). This dimensional analysis reveals important information about adolescents’ psychological focus and the extent to which their future thinking extends beyond personal concerns to encompass broader social circles and collective welfare.

Self-focused future orientation centers on personal goals, achievements, and outcomes. This includesindividual educational aspirations, career plans, personal relationship goals, and concerns about one’s own wellbeingand success (Seginer, 2009). Research suggests that a self-focused orientation typically dominates adolescent future thinking, particularly in individualistic cultural contexts where personal achievement and self-actualization are emphasized (Nurmi, 1991). However, even within predominantly self-focused future thinking, the specific content reflects both individual characteristics and cultural values about what constitutes successful personal development (Seginer, 2019).

Others-focused future orientation involves thinking about outcomes for significant people in one’s life, such asfamily members, future children, romantic partners, or friends. This orientation reflects relational concerns and the capacity to consider how one’s future actions might affect important others (Seginer, 2009). Research shows that other-focused thinking is more frequent in relational life domains, particularly marriage and family, where adolescents think about being good partners or parents and about ensuring the wellbeing of future family members (Seginer, 1992). Girls typically show greater attention to relational others in their future thinking (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018).

Collective-focused future orientation encompasses thinking about broader social, national, or global outcomes beyond personal circles. This includes concerns about national security, social issues, environmental challenges, or societal wellbeing (Seginer, 2019). Collective orientation appears less frequently than self or others orientation. However, it becomes particularly salient in contexts where collective challenges are prominent or where cultural values emphasize group welfare over individual concerns (Seginer, 2008). Research in collectivistic culturesshows higher collective future orientation than in individualistic contexts (Seginer, 2019).

The distribution of self, other, and collective orientations varies across life domains. Career and educational domains typically show predominantly self-focused orientation, as adolescents think about personal achievement and success. Family domains show a more balanced distribution of self- and other-oriented orientations, as adolescentsconsider both their own relationship satisfaction and the care of future family members. When broader societal domains appear in adolescent future thinking, they naturally engage collective orientation (Seginer, 2009).Understanding these existential dimensions adds depth to the analysis of future orientation by revealing not only whatadolescents think about but also whose welfare concerns them as they contemplate the future.

Future Orientation in the Israeli Context

Research on future orientation among Israeli adolescents reveals both universal patterns and context-specific characteristics shaped by the unique Israeli societal context. Israeli adolescents share the core future orientation domains identified in cross-cultural research, education, career, and family, but their future thinking also incorporates distinctive elements reflecting Israeli social realities (Seginer, 2019; Seginer & Mahajna, 2018).

Military service represents a particularly salient domain in Israeli adolescents’ future orientation due to mandatory conscription requirements. Israeli Jewish adolescents anticipate military service as an imminent and significant life transition that follows high school graduation (Seginer, 2008). Research shows that Israeli youth thinkextensively about military service, including concerns about unit placement, military roles, physical and psychological demands, and the meaning of military service as civic contribution (Seginer, 2009). Gender differences appear in military service future orientation, with boys and girls anticipating different military experiences and roles that reflect both institutional realities and personal preferences (Seginer, 2019).

The Israeli educational system, with its emphasis on matriculation examinations as gatekeepers to higher education and military placement, shapes how adolescents think about their near-future academic goals. Researchindicates that Israeli adolescents express significant concern about matriculation outcomes and their implications forfuture opportunities (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). The competitive nature of university admissions and the role of military service in delaying or shaping higher education pathways create distinctive patterns in how Israeli youth sequence their educational and career planning (Seginer, 2009).

Cultural diversity within Israeli society also influences future orientation patterns. Research comparingJewish and Arab adolescents in Israel reveals different priorities and concerns reflecting their distinct cultural values and social positions (Seginer, 2019). Studies examining different Jewish subgroups, secular, traditional, and religious, show variations in future orientation content and the relative emphasis placed on different life domains (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). These within-country variations highlight how future orientation reflects both broader national contexts and specific cultural community influences, with collective identities co-developing alongside it (Coulter et al., 2025).

The ongoing security situation in Israel creates a unique and historically specific backdrop for adolescentfuture orientation that demands explicit contextualization. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict represents one of the longest-running armed conflicts in modern history, involving competing national claims over territory, recurringcycles of military escalation, and structural asymmetries that shape daily life for both populations. For Israeli Jewishadolescents, this context means growing up under a mandatory military conscription system while simultaneously navigating recurring rocket attacks, displacement, and collective bereavement (Slone & Shoshani, 2022). TheOctober 7, 2023, Hamas attack constituted a qualitative rupture within this long-standing context: its unprecedentedscale, the mass civilian trauma it produced, and the subsequent military campaign in Gaza created conditions thatscholars have described as among the most psychologically devastating collective events in Israeli history (Levi-Belz et al., 2024). Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) ecological systems model illuminates these dynamics by distinguishing themultiple nested levels through which political violence affects adolescent development. At the macrosystem level, the conflict’s ideological and political dimensions, including contested narratives about national identity, security, and thefuture of Israeli society, permeate educational content, media, and public discourse that Israeli adolescents inhabit. At the exosystem level, government decisions about military operations, evacuation orders affecting over 240,000 displaced citizens, and emergency educational policies directly constrain or reorganize adolescents’ proximalenvironments. At the microsystem level, family bereavement, parental deployment for reserve duty, and peer loss fundamentally alter the relational scaffolding through which adolescents develop future orientation (Olinover & Hamama, 2025). Research examining Israeli adolescents across previous conflict periods reveals how macro-level societal challenges shape individual future thinking (Seginer, 2008), but the current war represents a qualitativelymore intense and prolonged exposure than earlier escalations. Understanding Israeli adolescents’ future orientation,therefore, requires attending simultaneously to these historically specific contextual particularities and to universal developmental processes.

Adolescents During Wartime

Adolescents experience fundamental biological, cognitive, and social changes. Along with these changes, adolescents are expected to fulfill developmental tasks such as identity formation, separation, and autonomy(Manning, 2002), set goals, and develop life perspectives (Jiang et al., 2017). War is an intensely traumatic event that exposes individuals, including children and adolescents, to numerous stressors at every level of their ecologicalenvironment. Applying Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) ecological systems model, the impact of armed conflict operates simultaneously across the microsystem (family disruption, peer bereavement, school closures), the exosystem (parental military deployment, displacement of community resources), the macrosystem (national ideological crisis, contested political narratives, and structural changes in state institutions), and the chronosystem (the cumulative, time-shaped effect of prolonged exposure that distinguishes sustained warfare from discrete acute trauma). Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of war and related stressors due to their developmental stage,which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood (Werner, 2012). In optimal conditions, adolescents’ developmental tasks are managed in an environment that provides social stability, emotional support, and social scaffolding. Extreme disruption, such as war, may interrupt or accelerate these processes (Munitz & Ben Shlomo, 2025). Stressful situations can significantly affect adolescents’ development, function, and lifestyle, and can disrupt mental health (Klochko, 2024; Peltonen, 2024; Slone & Shoshani, 2022). However, adolescents’ reactions to war are not uniform. A study conducted among Israeli adolescents during the Swords of Iron War identified three distinct vulnerability profiles (low, moderate, and high), with perceived social support emerging as the most sensitivedifferentiating variable (Olinover & Hamama, 2025). This variability reflects the differential operation of ecological protective factors across Bronfenbrenner’s systems: adolescents whose microsystem and exosystem resources remained more intact, those living farther from conflict borders and maintaining stronger social support networks,demonstrated lower vulnerability profiles. More recently, qualitative research revealed that some Israeli adolescentsnot only survived wartime challenges but experienced post-traumatic growth, developing new coping capacities sharpened by national existential urgency (Munitz & Ben Shlomo, 2025). This means that adolescents can cope with developmental demands under stress (e.g., premature shifts toward adulthood, fluctuating autonomy, and future-oriented identity reappraisal, as well as ambivalent thoughts toward military service as a civic responsibility), depending on their coping strategies, flexibility, and social support.

Future Orientation During Times of Threat and Challenge

Seginer’s (2008) theoretical model specifically addresses how future orientation develops and functions during times of threat and challenge, proposing that resilient adolescents construct future orientation throughcomplex psychological processes, even in the face of adversity. This model integrates the three-component structure of future orientation with an understanding of how contextual threat and individual resilience interact to shape adolescents’ prospective thinking.

The model distinguishes between threat, which poses actual danger or disruption, and challenge, conceptualized as a psychological response involving problem-focused engagement rather than avoidance or despair (Seginer, 2008). Research suggests that adolescents who respond to threatening circumstances with challenge orientation (high effort, active coping, future-focused planning) demonstrate resilience and maintain functional future orientation despite adverse conditions. This resilience reflects complex interactions among individual psychological resources, family support, cultural frameworks that provide meaning, and developmental factors, including age and identity-formation processes (Seginer, 2008).

Hope emerges as a central mediating mechanism in this model. Seginer (2008) proposes that hope, defined as belief in attainable goals combined with pathways thinking and agency, serves as the psychological bridge that allowsadolescents to maintain a future orientation even when objective circumstances appear threatening. Hope enables adolescents to envision positive future possibilities while acknowledging present challenges, thereby supporting continued engagement with developmental tasks and future planning. Research supports this mediating role of hope, showing that adolescents who maintain hope during adversity show better psychological adjustment and more adaptive future orientation (Seginer, 2008).

The model also identifies moderating factors that influence the extent to which threat affects future orientation. Cultural orientations shape how adolescents interpret threatening circumstances and what coping resources they access (Seginer, 2008). The developmental period matters: older adolescents may have more cognitiveand emotional resources to manage threat, while younger adolescents may be more vulnerable to disruption. Interpersonal relationships, particularly family support and peer connections, buffer against the adverse effects of threat on future orientation. Intrapersonal characteristics, including self-esteem, sense of control, and prior coping experiences, also moderate threat effects (Seginer, 2008).

Research examining Israeli adolescents during periods of heightened security threats provides empirical support for this model. Studies show that despite exposure to political violence and security concerns, many Israeli adolescents maintain positive future orientation across multiple life domains (Seginer, 2008). However, the content and emotional tone of their future thinking may shift, with increased attention to collective concerns and more explicit awareness of potential threats to personal and national security. Gender differences may also emerge in how adolescents respond to threat, with girls potentiallyshowing greater emotional reactivity while maintaining robust future planning (Seginer, 1992).

Cross-cultural research confirms that collective stressful events, including pandemics and prolonged conflicts, fundamentally reshape adolescent future orientation, increasing uncertainty while simultaneouslyheightening attention to collective welfare and sustainability (Santilli et al., 2025; Santore & Phillips, 2023).

The literature indicates that maintaining future orientation during times of threat serves importantdevelopmental functions. Future thinking provides meaning and purpose, supporting adolescents’ capacity to persist through present challenges by connecting current experiences to anticipated outcomes (Seginer, 2008). This forward-looking perspective may protect against hopelessness and support adaptive coping. However, the literature also recognizes that severe or prolonged threat can disrupt future orientation, particularly when adolescents perceive their futures as genuinely uncertain or when present circumstances prevent engagement with everyday developmental tasks (Seginer, 2008). Understanding the conditions under which adolescents maintain functional future orientationdespite threat remains an important area for research.

The Present Study

The present study examined the future orientation of Israeli Jewish adolescents during an ongoing war, focusing on both the content and emotional valence of their prospective thinking. This specific focus was deliberately chosen because the post-October 7 context constitutes an unprecedented confluence of acute mass traumaand prolonged collective threat, a context in which understanding whether and how adolescents sustain forward-looking developmental engagement carries direct implications for mental health policy, educational intervention, and social resilience. Israeli adolescents face a unique developmental context, navigating normative adolescent challenges while simultaneously experiencing the stressors associated with prolonged war. This dual challenge raises important questions about how adolescents maintain developmental trajectories and engage with future planning under conditions of ongoing threat. From a social justice perspective, understanding which adolescent populations are most affected by wartime disruption to future orientation is essential for designing equitable support systems.Research on adolescents in other conflict zones has demonstrated that sustained attention to future orientation is not merely an academic concern but a practical foundation for community resilience and post-conflict reconstruction (Nyarko & Punamäki, 2020; Lavi & Solomon, 2005).

The study examined adolescents’ hopes and fears across five life domains: school and matriculation, military service, education and career, marriage and family, and state and society. By examining both optimistic (hopes) and pessimistic (fears) FO, the study aimed to assess whether wartime conditions shift the balance toward more fearful future thinking or whether adolescents maintain predominantly hopeful orientations despite adversity. The study also examined the existential focus of future thinking, whether adolescents think primarily about self, others, or collective outcomes, to understand how wartime context may expand future orientation beyond purely personal concerns.

Given documented gender differences in future orientation, the study explored whether boys and girls differ in the domains they prioritize, the balance between hopes and fears they express, and the existential domains they focus on in their FO. Understanding these gender patterns during wartime may reveal whether threats and challenges affect male and female adolescents differently in their capacity to engage in future planning and in their emotional responses to uncertain circumstances.

The research questions guiding this study were: (1) What domains characterize Israeli adolescents’ futureorientation during wartime, and how are these domains distributed between hopes and fears? (2) Do gender differences appear in the content and emotional valence of future orientation across domains? (3) How does theexistential focus (self, others, collective) of future thinking vary across domains and between genders? (4) Do adolescents maintain predominantly hopeful future orientation despite ongoing war, or do fears predominate in their prospective thinking?

Method

Research Design

This study examines future orientation among Israeli adolescents during wartime. Seginer’s (2009) framework served as the analytical lens, with predetermined categories used to code responses. Participants completed open-ended questionnaires about their hopes and fears for the future. Responses were categorized by life domain and analyzed to determine whether the statements focused on personal outcomes (self), significant others, or collective concerns.

Participants

The sample consisted of 93 eleventh and twelfth-grade adolescents (ages 17-18) from three high schools innorthern Israel. The sample included 52% females and 48% males. Most participants (91%) were born in Israel; 9%were born in Russia and Ukraine. Most (64%) lived in two-parent households, and 49% of mothers held graduate degrees, suggesting predominantly middle to upper-middle socioeconomic backgrounds. All participants attended secular Jewish schools.

Measures

The Hopes and Fears Questionnaire (Seginer, 1988) was used to assess future orientation. This instrument includes two open-ended questions. The first asks participants to write their hopes for the future and indicate whenthey expect these to materialize. The second asks participants to write their fears and indicate when these might occur:

“People often think about the future. In the lines below, please write down the hopes you have for the future.”

“Now we would like you to think about fears concerning the future and write them down in the lines below.”

Multiple blank lines were provided after each question, allowing participants to write as many responses as they wished. This open format enabled adolescents to express their thinking without restrictions. The questionnairewas administered in Hebrew, the participants’ native language. Participants were instructed that there were no right or wrong answers.

Procedure

Approval was obtained from the District Director of the Ministry of Education and from the Ethics ReviewBoard (ERB. The principals of three high schools agreed that their students would participate in the study.

Data collection occurred during December 2024 and January 2025, 14-15 months after the October 7, 2023, war began. During this period, Israel experienced military operations on multiple fronts, large-scale reservemobilizations, the displacement of border communities, and frequent missile attacks. Participants had lived under wartime conditions throughout their senior year.

Students filled out questionnaires during regular class periods. Students were informed about the study’s purpose, understanding how young people think about their futures during challenging times. It was emphasized thatparticipation was voluntary, responses would remain anonymous, students could stop at any time, and answers would be used only for research purposes. Students completed questionnaires individually while researchers remained present to answer questions. Most participants finished within 15-20 minutes without time limits.

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed through systematic coding based on Seginer’s (2009) theoretical framework. Merging all participants’ responses yielded 256 statements. To enhance the trustworthiness of the analysis, inter-coder agreement was examined. The two researchers independently coded statements using the preliminary coding scheme (of Seginer’s model). Initial agreement reached 82%. Discrepancies were discussed until consensus was reached, resulting in minor refinements to the codebook. The revised scheme was then applied to the full dataset. Analysis of the 256 statements revealed five dimensions, similar to those in Seginer’s theoretical model.

Each statement was coded along three dimensions. First, each statement was assigned to one of five life domains: (1) School and Matriculation (high school completion and matriculation exams), (2) Military Service (mandatory service), (3) Education and Career (university and professional work), (4) Marriage and Family (relationships, marriage, parenthood), or (5) State and Society (national, social, or collective issues). This fifth domain emerged after initial review revealed substantial attention to societal concerns.

Second, each statement was classified as hope (desired outcomes, positive expectations) or fear (worries, concerns, negative possibilities). Third, existential focus was coded: self-focused (personal outcomes), others-focused (outcomes for family or future children), or collective-focused (broader social or national outcomes). Participant gender was also recorded for each statement.

Frequencies and percentages were calculated to describe patterns across domains, hope-fear orientations, existential dimensions, and gender. These quantitative summaries helped identify dominant patterns. Representative quotations were also selected to illustrate characteristic themes, preserving participants’ original language to conveyemotional tone and specific concerns characterizing their future thinking during wartime.

Results

Following the theory of Seginer (2009), the 256 statements were divided into the five domains of the prospective life course (School, Army, Higher Education, Career, Marriage & Family). Three levels of findings were analyzed: Domain, hopes and fears, and gender. Each of the five domains was analyzed in terms of the Self, the other, and the collective. In the present research, higher education was merged with career, and a new domain emerged: State & Society. In each domain, we counted the statements and calculated the counts by gender (see Table 1).

Table 1

Future Orientation by Life Domain: Content Distribution, Gender Patterns, Existential Focus, Hopes and Fears – Number of statements and percentages

*Note: Collect = Collective

Girls wrote significantly more future-oriented statements (n=160, 62%) than boys (n=96, 38%). This patternwas consistent across four of the five domains (except for the army).

Marriage & Family emerged as the most frequently discussed domain (n=73, 28.5% of total responses), followed by Education & Career (n=65, 25.4%), Military Service (n=60, 23.4%), and State & Society (n=38, 14.8%). School & Matriculation (n=20, 7.8%) received comparatively less attention.

Gender distribution varied across domains. Military Service was the only domain in which boys’ responses exceeded girls’ (58% vs. 42%). Marriage & Family showed the most marked gender disparity, with girls accounting for 75% of responses and boys for 25%. State & Society (74% girls) and Education & Career (62% girls) also demonstrated substantial female overrepresentation, while School & Matriculation showed a more moderate pattern (60% girls, 40% boys).

School & Matriculation

All responses in this domain (N=20, 100%) centered exclusively on the personal-self dimension. No references to social or collective dimensions were found. Girls provided 60% of responses (n=12) while boys provided 40% (n=8).

Boys’ responses emphasized concrete, outcome-oriented achievements: “I want to succeed in my matriculation exam in five math units,” and ” I am afraid of not succeeding in the matriculation exams”. Girls’ responses incorporated emotional and process-oriented dimensions: “I hope to be happy in school” and “I am worried about my grades”.

Military Service

Responses were distributed across self-focused (80%, n=48) and collective-focused (20%, n=12) dimensions.The “Others” dimension was absent. Boys’ responses exceeded girls’ in this domain (58% vs. 42%).Among self-focused responses, boys expressed hopes centered on elite unit placement: “I want to be accepted into the Air Force pilot course” and concerns about physical and mental capability: “I am afraid I will not be able to pass combat training“. Girls expressed aspirations for meaningful service roles: “I want to serve as an officer in the Intelligence Corps,” and social-emotional concerns: “I am afraid it will be difficult for me to get used to military service“. In thecollective dimension (n=12), boys articulated national service orientations: “To contribute to Israeli society“. Girls’ collective responses incorporated care-focused language: “To do something meaningful in the military to help people“.

Education & Career

The education and career domain was dominated by self-focused orientation, with 97% of responses (n=63) centered on personal aspirations and concerns. Girls provided 62% of responses (n=39), compared with 38% from boys (n=24). The “Others” dimension appeared minimally (3%, n=2), while collective orientation was absent.

Boys’ responses emphasized financial success and entrepreneurship: “I hope to study at the Technion and makea lot of money, I want to succeed in life, earn a lot of money at the age of 26, make a million shekels, start a successful business” with concerns about economic outcomes: “I am afraid I will reach 25 and have no money“. Girls’ responses emphasized meaningful work and alignment with their interests: “To study medicine at the age of 23at the University of Jerusalem and work as a neurologist, I hope that in the future I can live with a good and fulfilling job“.

The two “Others” focused responses revealed helping orientations: “To help people with my knowledge and abilities“.

Marriage & Family

Responses were distributed across self (63%, n=46), others (36%, n=26), and collective (1%, n=1). Girlsaccounted for 70% of responses across this domain, while boys accounted for 30%. Girls showed higher representation in both self (n=32 vs. n=14) and others (n=22 vs. n=4) dimensions. The single girl collective-focused Boys’ self-focused responses articulated family-formation desires: “I want to get married. To be a family man. Tohave children,” with concerns about relationship outcomes: “I am afraid of divorce. To die alone. Not to find the one.” Boys’ “Others” focused responses emphasized provider and protector roles: “To be a loving father to my children, that they be healthy and happy,” and financial capability: “I will not be able to support my family financially.”

Girls’ self-focused responses combined romantic and maternal aspirations with specific timelines: “I really want to be a young mother and establish a large family. To get married before age 30“, alongside existentialrelationship concerns: “I am afraid I will never find true love. That God forbid I will not be able to give birth“. Reproductive concerns appeared only among girls’ responses.

Girls’ “Others” dimension responses referenced wartime context: “That my children will live in a quieter world, and their fears will be of monsters under the bed” and “That my children will not have to live in a country at war“.Fears included: “That my children will also experience war. Not to find someone who will love me“. No boys’ responses referenced intergenerational war-related concerns.

State & Society

This domain showed a distinctive pattern, being the only domain where collective focus dominated (66%, n=25) with self (21%, n=8) and others (13%, n=5) orientations comprising smaller proportions. Girls demonstrated a stronger collective focus (80% of collective responses, n=20) than boys (20%, n=5).

Boys’ collective responses addressed political leadership and global issues: “That the prime minister willchange to one who is not problematic. To save human culture from global warming“, and national challenges: “That Israeli society will not be able to cope with future challenges“.

Girls’ collective orientation centered on war resolution and peace: “That the war will end and the hostageswill return. That there will be peace in the country“, with concerns about prolonged conflict: “That the war will notend until I want to start a family. That the world will only continue to deteriorate“. Girls’ responses explicitly connected war duration to personal life planning, particularly family formation.

Self-focused responses included personal safety concerns from girls: “That I will not feel secure living in Israel“. Other-focused responses from both genders addressed their family’s future generations: “That my brother will not die in the war”.

Cross-Domain Patterns

Self-focused orientation dominated across four domains (School & Matriculation: 100%; Education & Career:97%; Military Service: 80%; Marriage & Family: 63%), with State & Society as the only exception where collective focus prevailed (66%).

The “Others” dimension remained consistently underrepresented, appearing minimally in Education & Career (3%), moderately in Marriage & Family (36%) and State & Society (13%), and was absent from School & Matriculation and Military Service.

Gender differences manifested in both quantitative distribution and qualitative content. Girls showed greater representation in four of five domains and demonstrated more elaborate emotional articulations across domains. Boysexceeded girls only in Military Service (58% vs. 42%).

Wartime context appeared most explicitly in the Military Service and State & Society domains through direct conflict-related content. Implicit wartime references appeared in Marriage & Family through intergenerational concerns expressed exclusively by female participants.

Hopes and Fears Analysis

The 256 coded sentences were further analyzed by future orientation type, categorizing statements as either hopes (positive future orientation) or fears (negative future orientation). Overall, hopes dominated the future-oriented statements (n=154, 60%) compared to fears (n=102, 40%), demonstrating a generally positive future orientationamong adolescents despite the wartime context.

Overall Gender Patterns in Hopes and Fears

Among all hope statements, girls generated 61% (n=94) while boys generated 39% (n=60). However, the fearstatements showed an even more substantial female predominance, with girls accounting for 65% (n=66) and boys for 35% (n=36).

When examining the balance of hopes vs. fears within each gender, both boys and girls showed more hopesthan fears, but the ratios differed. Boys’ statements consisted of 63% hopes and 37% fears, while girls’ statements consisted of 59% hopes and 41% fears.

Domain-Specific Hope and Fear Patterns

 School & Matriculation

In the School domain, hopes slightly exceeded fears (60% vs. 40%). Hope statements (n=12) included: “Iwant to have a good matriculation certificate” and “I hope to finish school without pressure.” Fear statements (n=8) included: “My concern is that I will not pass the matriculation exams” and “I am worried about studies and grades.“

Gender patterns in hopes and fears showed opposing tendencies. Among boys’ school-related statements, hopes and fears were nearly balanced, with five hope statements (42% of all school hopes) and three fear statements (38% of all school fears). Girls contributed seven hope statements (58% of all school hopes) and five fear statements (62% of all school fears).

Military Service

Military service showed the strongest hope orientation among all domains, with hopes comprising 62% (n=37) and fears 38% (n=23) of statements. Hope statements included: “I hope to be accepted into a combat unit”, “I hope to serve as a military medic with a combat unit placement”, and “To serve the country, to contribute to the nation“. Fear statements included: “I am afraid I will not meet the physical requirements for elite units” and “I amworried about how it will be for me in the army without friends I know”.

Both genders demonstrated more hope than fear in this domain. Boys contributed 22 hope statements (59% of boys’ military statements) and 13 fear statements (41% of boys’ military statements). Girls contributed 15 hope statements (60% of girls’ military statements) and 10 fear statements (40% of girls’ military statements). Among all military-related hopes, boys contributed 59% and girls 41%. Of all military-related fears, boys accounted for 57%, while girls accounted for 43%.

Education & Career

The career domain maintained a hope-dominant pattern, with 62% hopes (n=40) and 38% fears (n=25). Hope statements included: “I hope to earn a lot of money by age 30. Open my own finance company”, “I want to study psychology at university. To work in a job that interests me”, and “To help people with my knowledge and abilities”.Fear statements included: “Not to succeed professionally/financially. To be unemployed,” and “I am worried I will not find a job I enjoy. That my future will be scattered”.

Both genders showed more career hopes than fears. Boys contributed 15 hope statements (38% of all career hopes) and 10 fear statements (40% of all career fears). Girls contributed 25 hope statements (62% of all career hopes) and 15 fear statements (60% of all career fears). The gender distribution remained consistent across both hopes and fears in this domain.

Marriage & Family

Marriage and Family maintained a hope-oriented pattern with 62% hopes (n=45) and 38% fears (n=28). Hopestatements included: “I want to get married and raise a happy family”, “I hope to get married and be a mother by theage of 25”, “To be a loving father to my children, that they be healthy and happy”, and “That my children will live in a quieter world, and their fears will be of monsters under the bed”. Fear statements included: “I am afraid of divorce.To die alone. Not to find the one”, “I am afraid I will never find true love. That God forbid I will not be able to give birth”, “That I will not be able to support my family financially”, and “That my children will also experience war”.

Both genders demonstrated more family hopes than fears. Boys contributed 10 hope statements (22% of allfamily hopes) and eight fear statements (29% of all family fears). Girls contributed 35 hope statements (78% of all family hopes) and 20 fear statements (71% of all family fears). Girls’ predominance in this domain was consistent across both hopes and fears.

State & Society

State and Society showed the most balanced distribution between hopes and fears among all domains, with hopes comprising only 53% (n=20) and fears 47% (n=18), nearly equal proportions. Hope statements included: “That the war will end and the hostages will return. That there will be peace in the country”, “That the prime minister will change to one who is not problematic”, and “To save human culture from global warming”. Fear statements included: “That the war will not end until I want to start a family. That the world will only continue to deteriorate”, “ThatIsraeli society will not be able to cope with future challenges”, and “That I will not feel secure living in Israel”.

Gender patterns diverged notably in this domain. Boys contributed eight hope statements (40% of all state/society hopes) and two fear statements (11% of all state/society fears). Girls contributed 12 hope statements (60% of all state/society hopes) and 16 fear statements (89% of all state/society fears). This domain showed the most dramatic gender difference in fear expression.

Cross-Domain Hope and Fear Patterns

Across all domains, hopes consistently exceeded fears, though the ratios varied. Military Service, Education& Career, and Marriage & Family all showed 62% hopes and 38% fears. School & Matriculation showed 60% hopes and 40% fears. State & Society showed the most balanced pattern, with 53% hopes and 47% fears, representing the domain closest to an equal distribution between positive and negative future orientations.

Gender patterns in the expression of hope and fear varied across domains. Across all domains, both genders reported more hope than fear, though the proportions differed. State & Society revealed the most striking genderdifference in fear expression, with girls contributing 89% of all fears in this domain compared to only 11% from boys. This contrasted with more balanced gender distributions in other domains.

The total distribution showed that, while both genders produced more hope than fear statements, girls contributed disproportionately to both categories. Girls generated 61% of all hopes and 65% of all fears, demonstrating greater overall engagement with future-oriented thinking across both positive and negative future orientations.

Discussion

This study examined the hopes and fears of Israeli Jewish adolescents during ongoing warfare, exploring how future orientation develops under conditions of sustained collective threat rooted in a specific and historically significant conflict. The findings reveal both resilience and vulnerability in adolescents’ prospective thinking, with distinct patterns emerging across life domains and between genders. Importantly, these patterns should not be interpreted as purely individual psychological outcomes but as products of the multilevel ecological system in which these adolescents are embedded.

First, participants across all life domains noted by Seginer (2009), including Marriage and Family, Education and Career, dominated adolescents’ future thinking, followed by Military Service, State and Society, and School and Matriculation. This distribution aligns with Seginer’s (2009) identification of universal domains while revealing context-specific patterns. The prominence of Marriage and Family suggests adolescents maintain focus on normative relational developmental tasks despite the conflict (Nurmi, 1991). The substantial attention to Military Service reflects the unique Israeli context wheremandatory conscription shapes future planning (Seginer, 2008). Most significantly, the emergence of State and Society as a distinct domain demonstrates how collective threat intrudes into individual future thinking, supporting Seginer’s (2008) model of future orientation under threat conditions. In a similar vein, Liberian refugees and survivors constructed future orientations that balance personal aspirations with collective concerns about peacebuilding andnational flourishing (Nyarko & Punamäki, 2021). However, exploring Israeli adolescents’ coping during the October 7^th war found that adolescents employed dynamic strategies ranging from emotional detachment to protective “bubbles” to active civic engagement, with intensified developmental demands, including premature shifts toward adulthood and future-oriented identity reappraisal (Munitz & Ben Shlomo, 2025).

Second, hopes exceeded fears overall, suggesting maintained optimism despite prolonged exposure to warfare. This supports Seginer’s (2008) proposition that resilient adolescents construct predominantly hopeful future orientations through hope as a mediating mechanism. In each of the dimensions: Military Service, Education and Career, and Marriage and Family, more hopes than fears were observed. However, State and Society showed nearly balanced distribution, indicating collective concerns evoke more ambivalent thinking. Recent research found PTSD rates among Israeli young adults surging from 25.2% pre-October 7 to 43.3% post-October 7, with concurrent declines in personal resilience and social support (Shapira et al., 2025). Their findings suggest that while adolescents maintain hopeful future thinking, the psychological costs of sustained conflict remain substantial.

Third, Female adolescents contributed 62% of all future-oriented statements, consistent with research showing girls articulate future thinking with greater elaboration (Seginer, 1992; Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). Several wartime-specific gender patterns emerged.

Military Service was the only domain with male predominance (58% vs. 42%), reflecting gendered expectations of military roles. Israeli boys approaching age 18 anticipate mandatory combat service, whereas girls typically serve insupport roles. The centrality of military service in boys’ future thinking may reflect the construction of masculine identity, in which military service marks a critical transition to adult male status in Israeli society (Lavi & Solomon,2005).

Girls generated 89% of fear statements in the State and Society domain. This pattern may reflect gender socialization encouraging emotional expression and attention to collective welfare (Seginer & Mahajna, 2018), heightened empathic concern for collective suffering (Werner, 2012), or greater facility with emotional language (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013). The small sample size in this domain (N = 38) limits the ability to draw definitive conclusions.

Girls contributed more statements to both hopes (61%) and fears (65%), demonstrating greater overall engagement with future-oriented thinking rather than simply more negative outlooks (Seginer, 1992). However, girls’ slightly higher fear proportion suggests wartime conditions may amplify their emotional responsiveness to collective threat.

Fourth, state and society, Seginer’s prospective life-course model outlines the anticipated developmental trajectory from adolescence to adulthood, encompassing educational transitions, occupational preparation, military obligations, and family formation. The predominance of self-focus in these domains aligns with cross-cultural research showing adolescents typically prioritize personal achievement when envisioning futures perceived as controllable through individual effort (Seginer, 2019).

However, the emergence of State and Society as a distinct fifth domain, virtually absent in peacetime future orientation research, reveals how sustained collective threat intrudes into adolescent future thinking. This domain showed a reversed pattern, with collective focus predominating (66%) over self (21%) or others (13%) orientations.From an ecological systems perspective, this finding is theoretically significant: it demonstrates that when themacrosystem becomes sufficiently destabilized, its ordinarily background influence becomes visible in adolescents’explicit future representations. The collective anxieties expressed in this domain (concerns about political leadership, peace prospects, and national security) are not merely individual psychological responses but reflections of how afractured macrosystem reorganizes developmental priorities. Moreover, girls’ disproportionate representation in collective fears (89% of all fear statements in this domain) suggests that gendered socialization processes within the microsystem, specifically the greater encouragement of emotional expressiveness and collective responsibility in girls, interact with macrosystem-level political realities to produce distinctive fear profiles (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013; Seginer & Mahajna, 2018). These findings have implications for social justice: the fact that girls bear a disproportionate psychological burden of collective wartime fears suggests that wartime mental health interventions should be attentive to gender-differentiated impacts and should avoid assuming a uniform resilience trajectory.

The predominance of self-focus in personal-control domains (education, career, military service) aligns with cross-cultural research showing adolescents typically prioritize personal achievement when envisioning futures perceived as controllable through individual effort (Nurmi, 1991; Seginer, 2019). However, when adolescents confrontcollective challenges requiring societal-level solutions—such as prolonged conflict or national crises—their future thinking shifts toward collective concerns (Ben-Zur & Almog, 2013; Santore & Phillips, 2023). Recent systematic reviews confirm that collective stressful events fundamentally reshape individual future orientation, promptingincreased attention to societal welfare beyond personal outcomes (Basilici et al, 2025).

Limitations

First, the cross-sectional design captured future orientation at a single time point, limiting conclusions about how prospective thinking evolves across conflict phases. Longitudinal research would illuminate whether the predominance of hopes represents stable resilience or temporary adaptation.

Second, the sample consisted of urban adolescents from predominantly middle- to upper-middle-class Jewish backgrounds attending secular schools, limiting generalizability. All the students were from areas in northern Israel that were hit by missiles close to the time the study was conducted. Research identified distinct vulnerability profiles among Israeli adolescents during the war, with adolescents in border communities who experienced evacuation showing dramatically higher PTSD rates (60%) compared to those farther from conflict zones, suggesting geographicproximity and socioeconomic factors substantially affect adaptation (Olinover & Hamama, 2025).

Third, the study focused exclusively on Israeli Jewish adolescents. Recent research examining multiethnicadolescents with Arab fathers and Jewish mothers during the Swords of Iron War revealed unique challenges innavigating conflicting identities (Malul & Sokar, 2025). These adolescents employed varied coping strategies, including flexing ethnic identity, disengagement, confrontation, and seeking family support, to manage peer rejection and parental tension. Their experiences highlight how ethnic identity intersects with future orientation during conflict.

Fourth, the study did not examine individual difference variables that explain variation in future orientation.Research suggests characteristics such as coping strategies, self-efficacy, prior trauma exposure, and family functioning likely moderate how warfare affects future orientation. Fifth, reliance on adolescent self-report introducespotential sources of bias. Sixth, the study did not assess temporal distance in future thinking, though research suggeststemporal extension affects both content and emotional valence. Finally, the study was conducted during a specific conflict phase when warfare remained active. However, some normalization had occurred, limiting conclusions about future orientation during acute conflict phases or post-conflict reconstruction.

Despite these limitations, this study demonstrates that Israeli Jewish adolescents maintain predominantly hopeful future orientation during sustained warfare while simultaneously showing evidence of wartime concerns intruding into their prospective thinking, particularly regarding collective futures. Gender differences emerge clearly, with girls showing greater engagement and disproportionate expression of State and Society fears, suggesting both resilience and vulnerability operating simultaneously. Interpreted through Bronfenbrenner’s (1986) ecological lens, these findings are best understood not as individual psychological outcomes but as products of multilevel systemicinfluences: macrosystem forces (the ongoing conflict, mandatory military service, national political crisis) shape adolescents’ developmental pathways, while microsystem resources (family support, school stability) modulate howthose pressures are experienced. The emergence of State and Society as a distinct domain dominated by collective concerns signals that these adolescents are being developmentally mobilized into political realities that universal developmental theory would not anticipate at this age. This has practical implications: educational and counseling professionals should create spaces for adolescents to process both personal and collective futures, address gender-differentiated wartime anxiety, and recognize that hope maintained under severe political constraint is not equivalent to hope in developmental normality. Future research should examine how these patterns evolve over the course of the conflict and how they compare with the future orientation of Palestinian adolescents experiencing the same conflict from a different structural position (Lavi & Solomon, 2005).

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Inter-Institutional Project to Strengthen Cognitive and Socioemotional Skills in Argentine Preschool Children

Mirta Susana Ison Zintilini^1,2*, Rocío Gimena Pascual¹, & Marcelo Roberto García³

¹ Faculty of Psychology, Aconcagua University

²Human, Social and Environmental Science Institute of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (INCIHUSA-CONICET), Technological Scientific Centre (CCT Mendoza-CONICET)

³ Directorate of Early Childhood Education (DEI). Ministry of Education, Culture and Children and General Directorate of Schools, Mendoza, Argentina

*Contact: mison@uda.edu.ar

                                                           Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe an inter-institutional project that has been developing since 2017 in pre-schools in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. The participating institutions are the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), the University of Aconcagua (UDA) and the Early Childhood Education Directorate (DEI) of the Government of Mendoza. This project, called the Integral Project for the Initial Level (PINI), is significant because three institutions are working together in a relatively unique collaboration to promote educational trajectories for children of 4-5-years through systematic training for their supervisors, principals and teachers on cognitive and socioemotional development in early childhood. This project represents a collaborative work model that seeks to combine the efforts and resources of participating institutions to benefit those children who need it most.

Introduction

         Early childhood is a particularly sensitive and favorable stage to enhance integral development and promote fundamental skills for psychosocial well-being throughout childhood, with projection towards adult life (Diamond, 2020; D’Intino, 2023). From this perspective, child development should best be understood as a relational and situational process, which occurs in and through specific contexts. Consequently, it does not depend exclusively on the individual characteristics of the child, but rather on a systemic conception of development, in which trajectories are configured from the continuous interaction between the characteristics of the person, everyday experiences, and the sociocultural and historical conditions organizing these experiences (Tong & An, 2024). In this sense, promoting child development trajectories is not limited to the implementation of programs focused solely on the child, but requires both the consolidation of educational policies sustained over time, oriented towards inter-institutional articulation and the creation of structural conditions that enable quality development and learning experiences.

         In this context, the bio-ecological theory of human development proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1999) offers a robust conceptual framework for understanding how developmental trajectories are shaped by the continuous interaction between the child and the multiple contexts, such as family, school, community and culture, based on the quality, regularity and coherence of the links and experiences that unfold over time. From this bio-ecological Process–Person–Context–Time (PPCT) model, proximal processes, understood as reciprocal, sustained and progressively complex interactions, constitute the main driver of child development. In line with this perspective, the School-Based Family Counseling (SBFC) approach, as conceptualized by Gerrard and Soriano (2020), consolidated as an integrative and systemic proposal aimed at promoting the academic success and personal well-being of children through interventions that deliberately articulate family and school contexts. SBFC is configured as a transdisciplinary meta-model organizing professional competencies, levels of action and clinical and educational decision-making processes, structured around two central axes. The first axis focuses on the family vs. the focus on the school, and the second axis focuses on prevention vs. intervention, the combination giving rise to a four-quadrant matrix. This structure makes it possible for accurately identifying the most appropriate level of professional action and for optimizing the impact of actions on the school/family settings. Furthermore, the meta-model explicitly incorporates the community dimension as an expanded context, shaping and sustaining the relationships between school and family, further enabling inter-institutional collaboration (Gerrard & Soriano, 2020). Together, both perspectives form the theoretical-epistemological basis on which the proposal developed in this article is based.

         Both theoretical proposals emphasize the importance of effective communication between school and family to achieve greater parental involvement. This concept is defined as the active, intentional and sustained participation of parents or caregivers in their children’s learning and well-being, through practices at home, school and family-school relationship. Practices at home include learning activities, shared reading, establishing routines and emotional support. Practices at school include participation in school activities and collaboration with teachers. Practices in the family-school relationship include two-way communication, decision-making and shared goal setting (Epstein & Sheldon, 2019; Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2019). This conceptualization emphasizes that involvement is not a one-off event, but a relational process built through reciprocal and collaborative links between families and educational teams, promoting continuity between the child’s everyday contexts and the school experience (Gerrard et al., 2020).

         Empirical evidence in early childhood education has shown that home-based engagement practices, particularly the frequency and quality of home-based learning activities, are positively associated with indicators of school readiness and early development, even in contexts of linguistic diversity and educational inequality (Avelar et al., 2023; Blair et al., 2018; Schmerse, 2020; Zelazo et al., 2016). Thus, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning during early childhood is characterised by non-uniform development, in which the different functions mature at different rates and their interrelationships are progressively reorganized throughout development, based on the experiences that children build in the various contexts of interaction. Several studies indicate that the basic abilities that support cognitive and emotional functioning are composed of working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, highly-interrelated processes that share a common denominator, that of an underlying executive attention factor (Diamond, 2013; Miyake et al., 2000; Posner & Rothbarh, 2014). Their harmonious functioning forms the basis for high-order processes, such as reasoning, problem solving and decision-making, all functions that intervene in emotional self-regulation (Canet Juric et al., 2020; Clements et al., 2016; Diamond & Ling, 2016; Diamond et al., 2019; Ison et al., 2020; Nyroos, et al, 2018).

         In turn, it is important to strengthen these skills from early childhood because this stage is one of the sensitive periods of development (Blair & Raver, 2014, Zelazo et al., 2016). Therefore, maximising equal opportunities for access to education by providing pedagogical strategies helping to strengthen cognitive, linguistic, emotional and interpersonal skills is one of the challenges for early childhood education level (Diamond, 2020; Diamond & Ling, 2016; D’Intino, 2023; Gerrard & Soriano, 2019; Goble et al., 2021; Ison, 2020; Morelato et al., 2019; Souza, 2024; Sulik et al., 2018; Traverso et al. 2019; Walk et al., 2018).

         The quality of early childhood education has a direct and significant impact on the effectiveness of the education system as a whole, contributing to improved educational outcomes and to reducing learning difficulties as students progress through the school year. Appropriate educational intervention during these formative years not only fosters the development of essential skills and learning, but also promotes adaptability and health throughout a child’s life, underscoring its long-term benefits (UNICEF, 2019). All the proactive and preventative actions implemented during this period contribute to strengthening educational trajectories, avoiding the accumulation of learning difficulties in later years.

         This proactive approach ultimately generates a greater return on investment in human capital compared to corrective interventions implemented at later stages of education, establishing a direct relationship between initial quality and sustained success. Institutions responsible for creating conditions that contribute to fostering improved educational quality must work together, combining efforts to strengthen and enrich teaching practices. This is the main objective of PINI, developed in 2017 and carried out by three institutions, such as National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Aconcagua University (UDA) and the Directorate of Early Childhood Education (DEI) Government of Mendoza, Argentina.

         How was this inter-institutional project, with its relatively unique collaboration, born? The 2030 Agenda, in its Sustainable Development Goal 4, points out the importance of access to early childhood care and development services, as well as quality preschool education for all children, so that they are prepared for primary education (United Nations, 2018). Thus, one of the challenges of education is to reduce the socio-educational gap by creating accessible opportunities to foster development of skills, thus expanding the repertoire of meaningful experiences to strengthen learning trajectories. 

         In order to contribute to this challenge, our research team, made up of CONICET researchers and professor-researchers from the Research Institute of the Faculty of Psychology (UDA), has been working for years on implementing various cognitive and socioemotional intervention programs and prevention programs in schoolchildren (Ison, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2020; Ison et al., 2020; Morelato et al., 2019). Since 2017, we have been working together with professionals from the Early Childhood Education Department (DEI), part of the General Directorate of Schools (DGE) of the province, for establishing a joint work agenda.

         This collaborative model has been expressed through the signing of a collaboration agreement by the three institutions, establishing a framework for coordination and cooperation between the teams of the participating institutions. We have been working as an inter-institutional team, with two important aims.  The first aim is planning together a work-agenda for articulating actions for promoting successful educational trajectories for students of 4-5 years. The second aim is establishing a significant increase and improvement of the teachers’, principals’ and supervisors’ methodologies in their educational practices.

         This is how the PINI Project for the Initial Level was born. The goal is to promote educational trajectories in students of 4-5 years through training teachers, principals and supervisors in cognitive and socioemotional development in early childhood.

         In Argentina, compulsory schooling extends from the age of 4 years until the completion of the secondary education level. Likewise, initial education constitutes a pedagogical unit, including children from 45 days to 5 years of age inclusively, with the last 2 years being mandatory. The concepts mentioned below are part of the objectives of early childhood education expressed in both the National Education Law 26.206 and its modification by Law 27.045.

         This collaborative work between the three institutions involved five focuses on the concepts involved in the aforementioned law. The focuses, their descriptions and their importance are listed in the following 5 paragraphs.

1) Promoting learning and development of children, as subjects for rights, as members of a family and a community: this objective is relevant because it conceives of learning and of child development from a comprehensive and rights-based approach, recognizing children as active subjects, whose development is built in interaction with the family and the community, promoting more equitable and contextualized educational practices.

 2) Promoting the development of motor, linguistic, cognitive and socioemotional abilities through playful activities: play is a privileged means of promoting holistic development in early childhood, simultaneously fostering motor, linguistic, cognitive and socio-emotional skills. Playful activities facilitate meaningful learning, enhance children’s motivation and active participation, and create interaction contexts that strengthen self-regulation, communication and social relationships, contributing to harmonious development.

 3) Trying to reduce inequalities in children at entry to school: reducing existing inequalities at the start of schooling promotes more equitable access to learning from the earliest years. Differences in educational, social and family opportunities could create early gaps in cognitive, linguistic and socio-emotional development, which tend to widen throughout a child’s schooling. Timely intervention allows for addressing these initial inequalities, strengthening fundamental skills, and fostering more inclusive and sustainable educational pathways.

4) Favouring interactive experiences and respect for oneself and others: through bonds based on cooperation, empathy and recognition of the other, children learn to regulate their emotions, resolve conflicts constructively and actively participate in inclusive educational contexts, laying the foundations for healthy coexistence and positive socioemotional development.

5) Contributing to student autonomy:  the development of autonomy allows children to gradually gain greater control over their actions, decisions, and learning. Fostering autonomy strengthens self-regulation, self-confidence, and personal initiative—fundamental aspects for active participation in the school environment and for building more independent and sustainable learning pathways over time.

         In turn, this inter-institutional cooperation involves holding different responsibilities and playing different roles. The educational government organism has to pay one extra hour of the teachers’ salary. In fact, the teachers voluntarily accept taking part in this project, and have to implement PINI in pre-school in the classroom activities, in P.E. classes, as well as in Music lessons. On the other hand, researchers of both institutions, the university and CONICET, have the following responsibilities: a) Training teachers, principals and supervisors at the Initial Level; b) Evaluating and Following-up the program for strengthening cognitive and socioemotional functions; c) Designing activities of knowledge transfer; and, d) Supervising of the participation of graduate psychologists and advance undergraduates.

         PINI is a project in which all the educational community and families are involved in the program. Thus, the three institutions work together for coordinating actions towards community education, with double purposes: first, empowering teachers in carrying out themselves the program in real-world conditions; and, secondly, achieving parental involvement in strengthening these functions in their children.

         Based on these considerations, our research team has had the responsibility of designing the “Naturalistic School Intervention”, based on previous research and centered on promoting mental health, focused on potentialities and maintenance of psychological wellbeing, in accordance with the full community (Ison et al., 2025).

         “Naturalistic School Interventions” are those defined by the use of teaching procedures for skills and behaviors developed in the child’s everyday contexts, integrating into their normal experiences (Barnett et al., 1993; Frost et al., 2020; Tiede & Walton, 2019). This intervention approach underlines the importance of both the assessment and implementation being carried out by significant adults in the child’s life and taking place in natural environments, such as the home, school or community, as part of daily routines and activities (Souza et al., 2024; Puentes Chávez, 2023). Empirical evidence indicates that this type of intervention has a greater potential to promote the maintenance of specific behaviors compared to interventions in non-natural contexts (Dubin et al., 2020).

         PHCSE in Spanish (“Program for Cognitive and Socioemotional Abilities”) is identified as a naturalistic school intervention, due to some characteristics that involve: firstly, through procedures of learning abilities or behaviors occurring within the children’s natural environment; second, through delivery by significant adults, such as their teachers; and, third, through implementation as part of daily children’s routine.

         For the proper development of this naturalistic intervention program, our research group is in charge of three responsibilities: firstly, training teachers, principals and school supervisors; second, monitoring the intervention (PHCSE); and, finally, evaluating the results of this process.  

         How could the program for the strengthening of cognitive and socioemotional skills (PHCSE) be briefly described?As different studies have shown, the intervention programs that showing greater efficiency are those that present certain characteristics, such as: a) permanence over time, as a policy of the educational institution; b) pedagogic activities incorporated in the study curriculum; c) fidelity and quality in the implementation of the program; d) implementation of the program by the teachers themselves; and, e) parental involvement in their children’s school activities (Avelar et al., 2023; Bardack & Obradović, 2019; De Simone, et al., 2023; Diamond et al., 2019; Hornby & Blackwell, 2018; Ison, 2020; Caligiore-Gei & Ison, 2021; Ison et al., 2020; Poulou et al., 2022; Souza et al., 2024; Traverso et al., 2019).

Thus, teachers play a fundamental role as a mediator of knowledge to promote and enrich the learning potential of children (Ison et al., 2023). Therefore, our group not only focuses on teacher training, but also on program monitoring and evaluation of results through 3 steps.

Step 1: Training teachers, principals and supervisors: PHCSE has the purpose of strengthening cognitive and socioemotional functioning in children of 4-5 years (Ison & Espósito, in press), directly involving training teachers and indirectly engaging parents by the teachers. It consists of 8 theoretical-practical modules, each of which addresses different themes: 1) Perceptual Organization; 2) Attention; 3) Inhibitory Control; 4) Cognitive Flexibility; 5) Working Memory; 6) Recognition of Emotions; 7) Resilient Attitude; and, 8) Strengthening Emotional Resources in School Contexts.

         Each module has a theoretical foundation that supports a series of practical activities, described in a stimulation book entitled “Cognitive and Socio-emotional Development in Early Childhood Education: Foundations and Strategies” (Ison & Espósito, in press). This book works as a guide for the teacher, in order to stimulate these functions in their students through playful activities. In the modules of Perceptual Organization, Attention, Inhibitory Control, Cognitive Flexibility and Working Memory, the activities were organized in an order of increasing difficulty. The intention was to generate cognitive challenges in the child, though, at the same time, respecting the development of individual trajectories in each of them.

         Before implementation, in each teacher training session, our team highlights a brief definition and description of each function, as well as the development trajectory expected in children at the initial level, its interrelationship with other functions, the reason for promoting its development and how to do so through recreational activities. The teacher training program has a defined structure with specific content. However, the teachers can creatively incorporate other activities, following the pedagogical intentions described in the training sessions, allowing their work to be adjusted to the characteristics of the group of children. All involved teachers provide specific aids, in agreement with the curricular content of their subjects, to help children develop and practice self-regulation strategies through concrete experiences. In addition, teachers are asked to work in a coordinated manner to promote cognitive and emotional functions, with special emphasis on both supporting children’s self-esteem and well-being during activities and praising children for their efforts during and at the end of each session.

         The resources used in training sessions are:

1) The book written by the research group, depicting recreational activities involving putting various cognitive and socioemotional skills into practice.  This book is a working guide for teachers, activities organized in an increasing order of difficulty, with the intention of generating cognitive challenges and respecting the development of each child’s individual trajectories.

2) Short videos supporting the explanation in the training meetings.

3) Podcast editing, in order to explain to families both the purpose of the program and how they could support their children at home, in order to achieve their involvement.

4) The website, called “Digital School”, where teachers can find recorded training sessions, as well as all the resources uploaded to this platform.

Step 2: PHCSE Monitoring: In relation to the monitoring of the program, two important aspects are considered: a) fidelity; and, b) quality. Firstly, fidelity, also called adherence, is the degree of accuracy of teachers carrying out the activities proposed in the intervention program, as outlined in the training sessions, an aspect of intervention implementation that is consistently assessed in studies of program or intervention effectiveness (Solomon et al., 2018; Marti et al, 2018). Second, quality of program implementation related to the teachers’ scaffolding practices in implementing each of the activities with their students. This means that teachers could support, facilitate and assist their students throughout the learning process, helping them to master cognitive and emotional skills. Effective scaffolding occurs when, in everyday classroom interactions, an emotional support network is built, from which both new knowledge and the development of various skills can emerge.  To monitor the fidelity and quality of the PHCSE implementation, both personal surveys of teachers and monthly online meetings with all teachers are carried out.

         Each session reviews how the project is being implemented. Not only were the cognitive and socioemotional aspects of their students addressed, but also other emerging topics of interest according to the needs of teachers. For instance, the strengthening of self-esteem in the school environment and the relaxing of children through playful breathing exercises or developing socioemotional and cognitive skills in education are key tools for resilience in schools, among others. In addition, at each meeting, teachers share their experiences with each other. These meetings also collaborated in helping teachers to manage their own emotions, fears, insecurities and situations shared by all the actors in the educational community: families, students and teachers, allowing feedback to our team of counsellors, in order to generate lasting benefits for children and the entire community.

         Some studies have shown that children at the initial level have varied learning rhythms and diverse sociocultural experiences, so it is fundamental that their teachers adopt “effective scaffolding strategies for learning” (Ison & Gonzalez, 2022). This requires an intervention program supporting teachers throughout the entire process.

         In terms of an ethics statement, to carry out the first two steps of this project, approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of Aconcagua (CEIS-UDA N° 03/25). In agreement with the school principals and teachers, the study are presented to the parents of the children attending the first year of initial education, for 4-year-olds.  Parents of participating children are informed about the objectives and procedures of the study before giving their written consent and before the administration of any assessment tools to children. Participating children are given verbal information about the procedure, and they could interrupt their participation if they desire. The informed consent notice, as well as the administration of this study, comply with CONICET guidelines on Ethical Behaviour in the Social Sciences and Humanities (2857/06), as well as the code of ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans and the ethical norms of the participating institutions.

 Step 3: Assessment of Results: process feedback: After the implementation of the PHSCE program, teachers complete an online questionnaire, prepared ad hoc by the team members, in order to explore four aspect. Firstly, the perception of change in the cognitive and socioemotional performance of their students after the application of the PHCSE; second, the fidelity in the implementations of PHCSE; third, the quality which the program was implemented by teachers for; and, fourth, teachers’ opinions on the usefulness of the training and on the support provided by the research team during PHCSE.

         At the end of the school year, a specific report is prepared for each educational institution, with the purpose of providing systematic feedback on the process developed in relation to the implementation of the Cognitive and Socio-emotional Strengthening Program at the initial level.

                                                              Methods

Design: The design is non-experimental and cross-sectional, with a descriptive scope (Hernandez-Sampieri et al., 2014).

Participants: The total sample consisted of 79 initial-level teachers, all females, belonging to schools in the province of Mendoza located in different areas: urban; peripheral; and, rural areas.

         In Mendoza, the configuration of the educational system establishes a classification of schools according to areas: urban, urban-marginalized, rural, rural-marginalized, rural-border (General Directorate of Schools, 2014). While we have adopted the DGE’s criteria based on the classification of schools according to geographical and socioeconomic criteria, we have enriched the classification by considering three types of schools based on their contextual characteristics and support needs, following an inclusive approach oriented towards equity in access to educational resources:

1. Urban Schools: Located in the metropolitan area of Mendoza or in areas with high population density, consolidated infrastructure and public services, with access to more complete educational resources and services, such as technology and extracurricular activities.
2. Peripheral Schools with Support Needs: Located in neighborhoods or communities with lower population density and often with unequal access to public services and resources, these schools commonly serve students from vulnerable backgrounds. They may be in transitional zones between urban and rural areas. They often face challenges such as a lack of resources or the need for priority attention or additional support for the socio-educational development of their students.
3. Rural Schools: Located in areas far from urban centers, generally in agricultural environments, where they tend to be smaller and, in many cases, having limited resources in terms of technology and teaching materials.

Teaching experience ranged from 5-to-15 years.

Instrument: Online questionnaires for teachers on the implementation of PHSCE, developed ad hoc by the team members to analyze four aspects: 1) the perception of change in the cognitive and socioemotional performance of their students after the application of the PHCSE and in which functions, represented by 2 items; 2) the fidelity in the implementations of PHCSE relating to how well the teachers implement games, strategies and other program activities specific to the PHCSE, respecting the pedagogical intention as indicated in the training sessions, represented by 4 items; 3) the quality of the program’s execution related to the scaffolding practices of the teachers when implementing each of the activities for their students, investigated through 3 questions; and, 4) teachers’ perceptions of the training process on socio-cognitive and emotional skills (PHSCE) carried out by our research team, composed of 2 items.  The full questionnaire consists of a total of 11 questions, scored on a continuum from 1-to-5, where 1 represents “never” and 5 means “always”. Content validity studies are continuously carried out, specifically through expert judgment as part of the estimation process.

                                                           Results

         The results are obtained from the analysis of 79 questionnaires answered by the participating teachers applying the PHCSE program.

         Concerning the first aspect of teachers’ perceptions of improvements in their students’ performance, they observed significant improvements in 44 % of “all” the children, 49% in “most of” the children and only 7% in “some” children. When analyzing which skills teachers perceived improvements on, 86% of teachers perceived improvements in Attention, 76% in Working Memory, 68% in Inhibitory Control, 62% in Cognitive Flexibility and 77 % in Visuo-motor Coordination. Regarding Socioemotional Skills, 67% of teachers perceived improvements in Emotional Recognition, 57 % in Group Work, 62% in Verbal Expression and 59% in Social Relationships.

         When analysing the Fidelity items, 82% of teachers “always or mostly” used the guidebook for the correct implementation of the program, including the resources available on the website, such as podcasts, recorded training sessions and other proposed recreational activities, while 18% used these resources “sometimes”. When asked whether they took into account the pedagogical intention and the levels of difficulty when proposing recreational activities, 97% responded that they did so “always or most” of the time, while only 3% responded that they did so “sometimes”.

         Regarding the Quality of PHCSE implementation, 92% provided “highly satisfactory” knowledge of scaffolding strategies to their students. Thus, only 8% of teachers provided unsatisfactory scaffolding.

         Concerning the teachers’ opinion on the usefulness of the training and the support provided by the research team during PHCSE, 87% of teachers responded that the training sessions were “very useful and relevant”. Thus, only 13% of them responded that only “some” of the training sessions and support were useful.

         In the qualitative reports made by the teachers on the opinion of the families in relation to the implementation of PHCSE, the teachers observed a sustained increase in parental involvement in relation to the proposal. The teachers noted that parents were attentive and engaged with the program’s implementation, expressing interest in the classroom activities and the objectives aimed at strengthening cognitive and socioemotional skills. Furthermore, the feedback provided by the families was described by the teachers as predominantly positive. In this regard, the teachers communicated to the parents the activities carried out at preschool, promoting the continuity and reinforcement of these skills at home. Additionally, the research team developed a series of explanatory videos for families, designed to provide concrete guidelines for fostering children’s cognitive and socioemotional development within the family context. According to the teachers, this strategy strengthened communication channels between school and families, as well as fostering greater parental involvement in the implementation of PHCSE. Furthermore, parents reported improvements in their children’s verbal expression, levels of autonomy and a more positive emotional disposition toward attending preschool, all associated with participating in shared play activities with their peers.

                                                        Discussion

         The aim of this article is to describe an inter-institutional project that has been implemented since 2017 in initial education in the province of Mendoza, Argentina, and to present some results obtained from its implementation.  Over the years, PINI has been part of the educational community, where most principals, teachers and parents agree that the program produces beneficial changes in children. From its beginnings to the present, the PINI project has grown year after year. Initially, our research group trained 20 teachers from 4 schools, reaching a total of 232 children. Currently, in 2025, 2,753 children are participating in the PHCSE program to strengthen cognitive and socioemotional skills, and 173 teachers and principals from 53 schools in the province of Mendoza have received training.

         The improvements in cognitive and socioemotional functions reported by their teachers after the implementation of the PHCSE are highlighted. At the level of cognitive functioning, a high percentage of teachers observe improvements in functions that support school learning, such as Attention and Visual-motor Coordination, and three of the central Executive Functions: Working Memory; Inhibitory Control; and, Cognitive Flexibility. Regarding socioemotional skills, teachers observed improvements in their students’ Recognition of Basic Emotions, ability to Share Group Work, Verbal Expression, and Social Relationships with Peers, thus improving the interpersonal climate in the classroom. The results reported by teachers are consistent with other studies showing the benefits of intervention programs in promoting the development of various executive and emotional functions (Goble et al., 2021; Souza et al., 2024; Traverso et al., 2019).

         In the classroom context, one of the factors that can influence the greater or lesser success of an intervention is whether the teacher leading the intervention program is committed to its success and firmly believes in its effectiveness (Blair & Raver, 2014; Diamond et al., 2019; D’Intino, 2023; Goble et al., 2021). In addition to the commitment to implementing a classroom intervention, teachers must be adequately trained and prepared to change their pedagogical approach towards teaching. Thus, teachers should be not only exclusively centered on fulfilling the study plan and having learning results, but also centered on focusing on the development of abilities of the child (D’Intino, 2023). Therefore, one of the pillars of the PINI project is the sustained and systematic training of principals and teachers to empower them to implement the program in real-world conditions. While teacher training is a necessary condition for the effective implementation of these programs in the classroom, theoretical and empirical evidence agrees that it is not sufficient if not accompanied by specific training for management teams. Studies conducted in other countries with initial-level children suggest that teacher training could lead to significant improvements in basic functions for school learning, such as executive, emotional and linguistic functions (Bardack & Obradović, 2019; Nyroos et al., 2018; Traverso et al., 2019; Walk et al., 2018).

         Teaching young children is a complex task, best accomplished when teachers have a detailed understanding of child development, curriculum and pedagogy (D’Intino, 2023). Thus, specialized training in early childhood development and education is related to the implementation of interventions and positive outcomes for children (Goble et al., 2021; Bardack & Obradović, 2019; Nyroos et al., 2018).

         In the school setting, principals play a central role both in shaping the institutional microsystem and in the school-family relationship, since their organizational, pedagogical and relational decisions directly affect the stability, continuity and quality of educational practices. Consequently, the training of principals is key to generating institutional conditions that support, amplify and legitimize the interventions implemented by teachers. Research indicates that educational innovation programs show higher levels of effectiveness and sustainability when management teams, such as supervisors and principals, understand the theoretical foundations of the program, actively support its implementation, and promote spaces for collective pedagogical reflection (Bardack & Obradović, 2019; Ison et al., 2025; Traverso et al., 2019). In the absence of this pedagogical leadership, interventions tend to become fragmented, depending on the individual commitment of some teachers, and diluted over time.

         From a systemic approach, such as that proposed by integrated school intervention models, including School-Based Family Counseling, the training of managers allows strengthening the coherence between the different levels of action: classroom: institution; family; and, community (Gerrard & Soriano, 2020). Thus, school administrators become strategic actors in fostering inter-institutional collaboration, ensuring time and space for program implementation, and promoting a school culture aligned with children’s cognitive and socioemotional development.

         Furthermore, the qualitative results obtained from the teacher observations indicate a greater degree of parental involvement in the implementation of PHCSE, which is consistent with the literature that emphasizes the central role of the family as the proximal context of child development. The interest and participation shown by parents, as perceived by teachers, can be interpreted as indicators of strengthened school-family communication. Furthermore, previous studies have indicated that interventions promoting systematic communication between teachers and families, and that provide concrete guidance for continuing activities at home, foster higher levels of parental involvement and have positive effects on children’s cognitive development, self-regulation and socioemotional well-being (Epstein & Sheldon, 2019; Caligiore-Gei & Ison, 2021; Gerrard & Soriano, 2020; Ison et al., 2025). These findings reinforce the importance of incorporating deliberate family participation strategies into cognitive and socioemotional strengthening programs at the early childhood level.

         A previous study conducted by our group showed the implementation of PHCSE through specific teaching strategies contributed to making performance in cognitive and socioemotional functions equal, promoting greater gains in the group most needing the strengthening of these skills (Ison et al., in press). Our study contributes to the evidence base supporting intervention programs aimed at strengthening skills supporting school learning, at reducing initial disparities in school groups and at providing opportunities to achieve academic goals.

         A review by Diamond and Ling (2020) concludes that, for any intervention, the ability of trainers to make the training activity enjoyable and to communicate their confidence in the skills and resources of participants and the program is probably essentially important. One of the most important things in an intervention is having the ability of the teachers to make the activities enjoyable, communicating their confidence in the skills and resources of the students in the program and promoting activities that are personally meaningful and relevant, inspiring the commitment and emotional investment of children in the activity and in each other. Hence, the importance of further studying the implementation of an intervention program as a potential factor contributing to the development of cognitive and socioemotional skills in children is very important (Walk et al., 2018; Goble et al., 2021).

         Initial childhood education is, without a doubt, the foundation upon which successful educational trajectories are built. In this fundamental process, the teacher emerges as an irreplaceable protagonist, whose influence transcends mere academic instruction towards encompassing the children’s integral development in their cognitive, emotional and social dimensions.

         School interventions, understood as programs with a clear pedagogical purpose, are considered strategic tools for addressing individual needs and preventing learning problems. However, their effectiveness depends on a design contextualized to a specific sociocultural reality, respecting the specific characteristics of the community where they are implemented. The complexity of educational trajectories, influenced by factors ranging from a child’s individual characteristics to their socioeconomic institutional quality environment, requires a situational and inter-institutional perspective.

                                                       Conclusion

         This article describes a unique collaborative experience in the province of Mendoza, Argentina, involving the coordination of two scientific-academic institutions and of one belonging to the provincial government. In 2017, teams from CONICET, the University of Aconcagua, and the Provincial Ministry of Education’s Early Childhood Education Directorate began working together and joined forces for the common goal of improving the educational trajectories of children in initial childhood education. Thus, the Integral Project for the Initial Level (PINI) was born, training principals and teachers implement an intervention program called PHCSE to strengthen cognitive and socioemotional skills in early childhood education. Over the past nine years, the project has grown rapidly. The implementation of PHCSE has been highly evaluated by both the educational institutions where PINI was developed, the schools involved and the government of the province of Mendoza. Thus, the implementation of intervention programs is a useful strategy for reducing disparities in different areas of development students may present when entering school, increasing the likelihood of positive future outcomes in interpersonal, emotional and academic performance. Likewise, public policies promoting continuing education, inter-institutional collaboration and the recognition of teachers as pedagogical leaders all offer key opportunities for enhancing the role of teachers and for ensuring that all children can reach their full potential.

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the participating teachers and students of Initial Education-Mendoza. In addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge David Beach for assistance with the English version.

For funding, this work has been written within the framework of the two research projects. The first, PS01/25, is supported by the University of Aconcagua, and the second, Tripartite Collaboration Agreement 2024-62065256-APN-CCTMZA#CONICET.

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The Three-Step Parent Consultation Approach: A Case Study

Helen Sung*

Cupertino Union School District, Sunnyvale, California, USA

*Contact: sungeiq@gmail.com

Abstract

This qualitative study describes the Three Step Parent Consultation approach. This case study is a memory-based analysis of typical generic clients from a collection of parent clients at a public school in Northern California. There is not a lot of research on the steps of the Three Step Parent Consultation approach or the concerns and views of parents during the parent consultation process. The purpose of this study was to provide descriptive information on the parent consultation steps and how parents experienced those steps. The results suggest positive outcomes with relationship building, student agency, and communication.

                                               Introduction

         Parent education is essential to promoting emotional well-being in children and adolescents because the parents create the environment in which children dwell (Sung, 2010). However, not all parents have access to parent education and training. It has been the common experience where parents who are seeking information are those who are actively learning and growing their parenting skills. Those parents who need the knowledge because they have challenges with parenting may not seek it or priorities are not there. One of the reasons may be generational trauma. Research evidence (Mate, 2022) indicate the impact of generational trauma on health and psychological well-being. Challenges with emotional regulation, self- awareness and management may be passed down to the next generation unintentionally. The barrier to emotional well-being may be due to their own unmet emotional needs. As a result, they may not seek information or help when needed.

         Therefore, the parents may not exert the energy to search for help or resources. This is consistent with the ecological model (Gutkin, 2008) that states that the children are the result of the environmental influences. At the microsystem level, as described in Bronfrenbrenner’s systems theory (Bronfrenbrenner, 1979), family is impacted by the culture of competition in the community. The goals of success may be common among parents, but how that is achieved or the message expressed in the families may vary. The studies on parenting style suggest that democratic and authoritative parenting have been associated with emotional intelligence and well-being in children and adolescents (Muntaha, et.al., 2024). Authoritative parents are intentional in their parenting, firm yet flexible. They follow through with agreements between parent and child. The parents who set clear guidelines in a warm and caring manner improves the children’s emotional intelligence. Furthermore, a longitudinal study on parenting practices (Weissman et.al., 2025) found that positive parenting during early childhood was associated with resilience, self-regulation, and behavioral management in school-age children. The parent education on emotional intelligence is consistent with authoritative and intentional parenting.

         Mardiah et. al. (2024) pointed out that the parenting patterns in elementary school age children are associated with the development of emotional intelligence. This is based on analysis of ten different studies on emotional intelligence. The findings indicate that democratic parenting can help children grow emotional intelligence. On the other hand, authoritarian and permissive parenting tends to hinder the development of children’s emotional intelligence.  The strict and domineering parenting or parenting with no boundaries are found to be detrimental to children’s emotional development. The findings explain that the role of parents is very important in shaping children’s emotional intelligence by applying strategies that guide children in the direction to develop emotional intelligence for future success.

         Emotional intelligence is associated with psychological well-being (Taylor, 2001). The greater the emotional intelligence, the greater the decreased chance of emotional disorder. In today’s global world, emotional wellness of people is essential due to the complexity of the development in technology and teamwork needed to advance. Parenting practice did not keep up with the changing world. The YouTube channel titled, “Emotional Intelligence is the Future of Parenting” (2025) explains the need for people with higher emotional intelligence in the advanced world.

         Traditionally, emotions of children were not considered by many parents. Based on their own experience, adults were supposed to correct kids when something goes wrong. Children were expected to comply and follow directions. It was considered rude and sassy when children question their parents’ directives. Shame and guilt were often used to control children’s attitude and behavior (Sung, 2016). Some parents may feel their role is to makes kids do well in school for their children’s future success. While this may be true, the recent research on parenting practices linked the terms “authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting” to the impact on emotional intelligence and the results have been consistent. The parents who were authoritarian saw a decline in their children’s emotional intelligence while authoritative parents increase emotional intelligence in their children (Muntaha, et.al.2024). This is consistent with Sung’s (2010) results: the environment or the culture that the children experience everyday impact the emotional intelligence of children and adolescents. A longitudinal study that used measures on parenting style through a survey and assessed for emotional intelligence on their older children, found increased emotional intelligence in children whose parents were authoritative (Mardiah, et. al. 2024). These parents model strategies that guide their children to apply emotional intelligence skills. Effective parents impact their children’s emotional intelligence and competence because the children experience it in their environment every day.

Parent Consultation and Emotional Intelligence

         Therefore, parent consultation was a method of choice to reach parents who may not seek help otherwise. Swriker et al. (2024) found barriers to parents seeking help. Parents frequently choose to manage their child’s social/emotional challenges independently or seek informal support from family and friends. Parental reluctance is not merely an unwillingness to engage, but a complex interaction of psychological barriers, knowledge deficits, and structural obstacles encountered during the help-seeking pathway.  Some of the studies on consultation focus on parent-teacher conjoint behavioral consultation.  Sheridan et. al.  (2013, 2017, 2019,) found significantly greater decrease in children’s problem behaviors, such as arguing, defiance, noncompliance, tantrums, and off-task behaviors. There was increase in desired behaviors, such as appropriate social skills and on-task behavior. In addition, significantly greater increases in parent competence in problem-solving and home-school communication. While behaviors may have improved through behavioral strategies, the emotional well-being of students were not investigated. The parent consultation model was known to be effective for behavioral interventions with meta-analysis of multiple studies (Thompson et al, 2017, Smith et al, 2019). However, the literature on consultation that focused on emotional intelligence and well-being of children in which the parents create the environment are scarce. This will be a qualitative study investigating this.

Description of the Three-Step Model to Parent Consultation

         In the Three-Step Parent Consultation approach a total of three meetings are scheduled due to the need for follow up and accountability. This may be different from typical consultation model where it may be one time meeting with no follow up. However, the three-step approach is intentional about follow up for accountability.  In the first meeting, the problem was identified, and emotional challenge of their child was explained. Their concerns were first heard then it is connected to the emotional responses that impact the behaviors. Parents are encouraged to pay attention when the child is doing well, not when something needs correcting because the child’s emotions are impacted. When the child feels heard and accepted, they gain self-confidence.  In the second meeting, parents discuss what they have tried and the outcome. Here, the parents are encouraged to ask questions instead of telling the child what to do. This way, the child is encouraged to think, plan and solve problems. The final meeting happens after a month, and it allows parents take the next step in children engagement in setting goals and rules in a collaborative environment such as the family meeting. Once the parents are moving in the positive direction, the consultation is terminated.

         The three-step consultation model promotes emotional intelligence because: a) it raises awareness in both parents and students, b) fosters parent-child engagement because parents let go of control, and communicate effectively by providing a safe environment without criticism or judgement; and c) it improves self-confidence and motivation resulting in better self-regulation and behavior.

                                           Purpose of Study

         This study focused on the emerging themes in the micro system of families during parent consultation (Bronfrenbrenner, 1979). Parents often interact with their children in a way that is consistent with their belief system. Often, these parents do not have time to seek parent education. Therefore, to meet the parents where they are, individual three-step parent consultation was provided to parents who were identified as having challenges with their children regarding school related behaviors and expectations. There is a scarce literature on parent consultation with the three-step model. The research on consultation was limited to behavioral consultation or home-school intervention. The three-step parent consultation focused on emotional well-being and competence of children was not found in the literature. The current qualitative study will investigate the three-step parent consultation focused on creating an environment that promotes emotional well-being and competence. In turn, children will learn to be organized, take ownership for learning, and advocate for themselves.

                                         Research Questions

         This qualitative case study will describe the three steps with examples. Pseudo names will be used in examples to protect the privacy. The following questions will be addressed: 

What dominant themes emerge during the three stages of parent consultation?

What is the outcome of the parent consultation that focus on emotional well-being?    

                                               Method

Participants

         The school district has 67% Asian population consisting of East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Less than 50% were of European descent and less than 10% of Hispanic and African American students. The parents are motivated to support student success after school with tutors and lessons. Most of the students are involved in after school programs as a result. Many of the parents’ concerns center around grades and test scores. Therefore, homework completion becomes the main topic of discussion at home. While most students comply, there are a few students experiencing challenges behaviorally, emotionally, and academically. These students are identified by their guidance counselors and parent consultations are scheduled.

         The total of fourteen students and their parents were referred by academic counselors for virtual parent consultation at the above-mentioned middle school. The parents’ motivation to participate, follow through, and degree of student needs were screened for positive outcome. There were 9 boys and 5 girls. Either a single parent or both parents participated in the virtual meeting. Whenever possible, both parents were encouraged to participate so they get the same message. Out of fourteen families, 7 parents were East Indian, 5 parents were Chinese, one Jewish, and one European heritage. Because the demographics are from the Silicon Valley, the parents are college graduates in engineering, marketing or management roles.  Thirteen out of fifteen cases included both parents. The types of parents referred were those who struggle with expectations and emotional challenges in their children such as suicidal ideation, absenteeism, emotional dysregulation such as anger, or truancy. These students often miss school, disengage in their learning or have peer relational challenges. In addition, some students who struggled with academic pressure from parents, have challenge with the lack of ability to self-regulate tech usage, or unproductive and inattentiveness were referred.

         Participants were selected in the following manner. The guidance counselors send a follow up email and include the school/educational psychologist. The appointment date and time is confirmed through an email. Then the school/education psychologist sent the virtual invite. If the parents accepted the invite, a date was set for the first consultation meeting.

Intervention

The intervention consisted of the Three-Step Parent Consultation approach described above.

Research Design

This is a qualitative case study based on the school/education psychologist’s recollection and use of case notes.

Data Analysis

 A simple thematic analysis was conducted of what seemed to be the recurrent issues (themes) discussed by parents during each of the three consultation sessions.

IRB Review

This study received IRB approval from the Western Institute for Social Research in Berkeley, California. Client confidentiality was ensured by the researcher using anonymized generic information that could not identify any client.

                                                        Results

Themes in the First Consultation Meeting

         In the 1st meeting, the parents are asked to describe the typical dynamic at home. Many of the parents who participated said that their priority is their kids’ grades dropping. One parent acknowledged that she needed to remind her daughter about the upcoming project. Another parent said that she was having difficulty with her son waiting till the last minute to do his schoolwork. She wanted to know how to get him to plan better. Still another parent said that his son has trouble getting up in the morning, so he misses his school often. Another parent said that their daughter has social challenges and gets depressed when she spends so much energy to please them and her mood slumps to depression when she is not accepted by others.

         Parents were reminded that their attention is powerful. Most of the parents who participated in the consultation said that when they focus on the grades, their relationship with their child struggled. Students often don’t want to talk to parents, stay in their room, and ignore parents’ comments. One parent said that when he asked about homework, the son said it is done but the parent found out from teacher’s email that it was not done. Another parent added that negative consequence or a threat of something being taken away got the child to complete the project. The father said he does not like to use threats. Another parent said that is it hard to always be positive when the child’s grades suffer.

         Parents were asked what they would like for their child. Most parents say that they would like autonomy and agency for their child but did not know how to develop it. All the parents acknowledged that autonomy and agency is a lifelong skill. Now is the time to build habits for success because high school has other distractors that can be even more challenging without emotional competence.

         Parents were asked if they knew that colleges do not look at middle school grades. One parent said that if the grades are bad in middle school, it will most likely be bad in high school. Another parent agreed that habits are more important than grades. One parent asked if there were programs at school to support students’ emotional well-being. A single father said that he has read a lot of books on emotional intelligence because it impacts not only his daughter but also him at work. He agreed that emotions impact the decisions we make and was finding ways for his daughter to experience positive social life. Another parent said that their daughter puts pressure on herself as she compares herself with others. All the parents agreed that emotional well-being is most important because it impacts their choices and decisions.

         It was explained that children’s behavior is a sign of emotional challenges. They may be avoiding tasks or hide challenges they face at school for a reason. It is not a matter of right or wrong but understand the emotions behind their choices. Once the parents understand the importance of emotional well-being in their children, they were ready to listen to simple strategies to promote positive interactions. They were encouraged to pay attention when their children are doing well not when something needs to be corrected. Instead of telling kids what to do, parents were encouraged to ask questions. We want to encourage thinking, self-advocacy, and problem-solving. Parents were recommended to restrain from solving problems for them.

         The educational psychologist explained that parent attention is a tool they may not be aware of. One parent agreed that they need to let go so that their children take more control. If their children were told what to do all the time, they don’t learn to think for themselves. Another parent said his child needs to initiate and follow through with a task. He waits for parent’s directives. The psychologist added, “He does not initiate because he does not want to fail and disappoint parents.” All the parents agreed that emotional well-being is a priority and were willing to start with positive attention. It was also explained that parental attention is a powerful tool. They can intentionally ignore minor errors and focus on the positive behaviors, no matter how insignificant it may be.     Their attention is not only for academics but also for social and emotional interactions with family, sibling and friends. In addition, providing opportunities to contribute to the family by being helpful and kind increases positive engagement with the family. It is a step towards being a contributing member in the society. All of the parents responded in agreement, acknowledgement, and surprise at times. A few parents explained that they grew up in a different environment where criticism was the norm. One parent said it is hard to ignore when she sees the teacher’s email saying that homework is missing. Most parents say that positive attention is helping their relationship. Another parent acknowledged that it is easy to fall back on their old habits of criticism and judgement, so the follow-up meeting has been a helpful reminder.

         The parents were encouraged to know that their children will respond as the parents made small changes. One parent said, “I need to change first.” Another parent said, “My son is talking to me and asking questions.” A father commented that at least one of the parents have recognized small successes. He is perceived as a disciplinarian and chose to step back. So, they have seen their child be more cooperative. One parent said that their son sometimes asks questions now when he used to ignore parents. Another parent said that her daughter’s response rate is 50/50, it’s a small progress from no engaging at all.

         The parents were reminded that criticism and judgement make children feel unsafe. Children want to distance themselves from parents, so we need to remove it from our vocabulary. The parents were recommended to focus on the efforts and process instead of the outcome.

Themes in the Second Consultation Meeting

         In the 2nd meeting, the following questions were asked by the school/education psychologist: How is the positive attention impacting relationship with your child? Many parents answered that their child seems happier. The parents of one student reflected on their daughter’s emotional progress from suicidal ideation to active engagement. It seems to be the result of their positive attention to small successes such as going to school on time, helping a sibling, and organizing her area. In addition, she is doing better because she is participating in the community social activities. She is more motivated to do what makes her happy. The student reported to her counselor that she is in a better place and enjoys her new interest.

         All of parents reported that their children are more willing to talk to them without shutting down. Their children are more cooperative and ask questions because of positive attention. It was shared that students don’t like to be told “dos” and “don’ts”. One parent said that his daughter seemed happier. Another parent said that the child is motivated to complete the schoolwork with shorter intervals that their child decides. The parents are talking less about schoolwork at home but look for things to praise their children. All of parents reported that they encourage their children to plan how they would like to spend their time. They can decide how long the school task will take. Positive attention encouraged their child to continue with the practice until it becomes a habit.         Often, parents see positive change with their children taking on the responsibility of being a student. Not all parents tried the family meeting, but some say they will try it later. A few parents say that the skills children developed through the family meeting is communication, assertiveness, and problem solving. One parent said, “This is a life skill that their kids will need in high school and beyond.” All the parents agreed and seemed motivated to continue with positive attention.

Themes in the Third Consultation Meeting

         In a final meeting, these were the conversations: How is positive attention impacting your child’s motivation? All the parents reported that their children seemed more engaged and take initiative. They no longer tell their children what to do but ask questions. The children are more receptive to questions to help guide them to resources to solve their problems. One parent asked, “What do we do when the child continues with the behaviors that upset us?” The educational psychologist recommended a neutral tone of voice to help the middle school child reset and try again.  All the parents said that their efforts to create opportunities to listen to their children increase cooperation. One parent said there is less resistance when the parent asks questions like, “Did you think about what to do next?” Or “What is your plan?” One parent said that he listens to their daughter’s ideas and remains supportive. She was able to resolve her social challenges on her own.

         What maintains the behavior for success? All the parents said that positive attention to things children do well helps middle school children continue with behaviors that support positive habits. Anything that the child does like getting ready for school, helping mom or dad, playing positively with siblings, using kind words, are worthy of positive attention. All the parents recognized that they tried to give positive attention to behaviors not associated with school. One parent said that their relationship is better because of positive attention to efforts. He reminds himself that it is small steps each day that makes the big difference in the future.

                                Example of Typical Case and Dialogue

         Note: to preserve client confidentiality the client statements are made up to illustrate the sort of typical response made by a parent.

First Consultation Meeting

School/Education Psychologist:  Thank you for making the time to be here and it is good to see you.  Can you describe for me what is happening at home?

Parent: Manny seems immature, cannot take responsibility and rely on others too much.   He does not have a normal value system because he focuses on food instead of his academic achievement.  He says he cannot find a place for his bike and choose to not go to school instead of solving the problem.  We encourage him to talk to parents, but he only talks when he likes the topic. He does not care about schoolwork, only likes to be with friends at school.

S/E Psychologist:   When we tell him what to do, Manny will not initiate until he is told what to do.  Would you like to change the vicious cycle?

Parent:  What can we do?

S/E Psychologist: We ask questions instead of telling him what to do. Such as “Do you know where to get your information to complete your homework?  Do you have materials you need to complete your project? We are asking to help him think about solutions.

Parent: We will try that.

S/E Psychologist: Don’t forget to give attention when he shows that he is trying to find solutions.

Parent: Thank you for the reminder and I will do that.

S/E Psychologist: I will see you in two weeks to follow up on how you are doing. We can communicate through email to set the date.

Parent: Thank you

Second Consultation Meeting

S/E Psychologist: How have you been doing with Manny the last two weeks?

Parent: He is not missing school anymore.

S/E Psychologist: What have you done differently?

Parent: We let him decide how he does his schoolwork and tell him how please we are to see him try his best. He goes to school early enough to put his bike in the bike rack.

S/E Psychologist: Sounds like he is making positive change. We want to encourage positive communication and planning with Manny. When you have a family meeting, it is a place for him to share his plan and strategies to solve his problem, and you can listen to him. Would you like to try that?

Parent: When we have time, we will try.

S/E Psychologist: Remember, we want to keep away from criticism and judgement. It has negative impact on children’s emotions.

Third Consultation Meeting

S/E Psychologist: Good to see you again. Today is our last meeting. Did you try the family meeting?

Parent: We only had time to do it one time.

S/E Psychologist: How did it go?

Parent: We tried hard not to judge or be critical and stay neutral.  I think he knew that we were trying to listen to him.

S/E Psychologist: That is wonderful, you are heading in the positive direction to support his emotional needs. He is getting your positive attention and recognition for his efforts. You have a better relationship. He is learning to be autonomous, problem solver, and advocate for himself. These are the skills he need in high school and beyond.

Parent: Yes, I agree.

                                                  Discussion

         The parent consultation was a success as most parents followed through with the recommendation to focus on positive attention to support emotional well-being 98% of the times. The parents have been intentional about their attention and parenting, and this may be consistent with authoritative style (Merdiah, 2024). The three- step parent consultation allowed parents to focus on the emotional well-being of children. In addition, it ended with three meetings instead of prolonged meetings. It increased accountability with follow up meetings and parents reported on what they have tried. The parents were motivated to participate because their children’s emotional well-being impacted the choice they made at school. The parents choose to attend to what is important, which is to foster emotional competence, autonomy and advocacy. Positive attention makes the children feel safe unlike criticism and judgement.

         This three-step model is effective because the parents are encouraged to let go of control and allow the children to think for themselves. Emotional intelligence begins with awareness, so the children are expected to notice the change in their parents. It improves relationship and communication because children feel safe. Furthermore, self-management is another aspect of emotional intelligence. As the confidence increase, motivation to improve and manage responsibility increase. After the three-step consultation, the parents were headed in the direction to continue the growth of emotional intelligence. Most parents noticed improvement in relationship and communication. They were able to ask their children questions about behaviors and habits without resistance or avoidance. These improvements not only help their children academically but emotionally as well. They were more likely to ask questions to get what they need. Their assertiveness and engagement improved. With progress and achievement, their emotions improved with a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and optimism. Promoting the emotional health of children may be a way to stop the vicious cycle of generational trauma (Mate, 2022). The three-step consultations were just to help parents get started but they were encouraged to continue to create a positive home environment, listen to their children, let their children initiate and plan what they do. The feeling of success tends to propel future success within a positive and supportive environment.

                                               Limitations

         This study was a qualitative ex-post-facto case study, so the information was based on recall of the cases and conversations that occurred after the consultation. While the consultation was successful, more objective outcome measures with statistical evidence could not be provided. It was also conducted in only one school site where parent consultation was practiced, and the results may not be generalized to other school sites where it is not a common practice because of the different team structures and priorities. 

Recommendations for Practice and Future Research

         The importance of emotional well-being and emotional intelligence must be highlighted for the future generation. However, there is not enough statistical research in academia to promote it. While behavioral consultation and the positive impact have been investigated, parent consultation to promote emotional intelligence and well-being have not been thoroughly researched. The future research could branch out into multiple schools where the school mental health professionals provide consultation then collect data about the effectiveness. In addition, mixed method study with surveys and interviews regarding the emotional well-being of students may illuminate the need for continued parent consultation.

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From Understanding to Action: Addressing Acculturation Stress and Strengthening Educational Aspirations Through Family Cohesion Among Cuban Immigrant Adolescents

Xin Quan^1*, Nelson M. Perez², & Pen-Fen Li³

¹ Independent researcher, Kansas City, Missouri

² Touro University Worldwide

³Nova Southeastern University

Contact: xq3@mynsu.nova.edu

 Abstract

Objectives: Previous studies have shown the complexity of acculturation stress on depression and educational performance among Latino immigrant adolescents. Guided by family resilience theory, this study examined the mediating effects of depression on the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration, and the moderating effects of family cohesion on the relationship between perceived discrimination and depression as well as educational aspiration among 805 Cuban immigrant adolescents. Methods: Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized model. Results: The findings supported that perceived discrimination negatively influenced Cuban immigrant adolescents’ educational aspiration through their depression, and family cohesion directly decreased depression and enhanced educational aspiration. In addition, family cohesion intersected the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration, especially for Cuban immigrant adolescents from a high cohesive family. Conclusions: Family cohesion directly protected the negative influence of depression and enhanced educational aspiration for Cuban immigrant adolescents. Family cohesion played a role in shaping Cuban immigrant families’s different ways of handling discrimination throughout acculturation process. Possible follow-up transformative actions were also provided for future consideration. In addition, this paper proposed a transformative action research design that could investigate the topic further from the quantitative outcomes and discuss the practice implications of those findings.

Introduction

Previous studies have indicated that Latino immigrant families experience acculturation stressors that include cultural trauma, social discrimination, language barriers, racism, loss of cultural values, loss of social status in their country of origin, and lack of opportunity due to undocumented status. (Cabassa, 2003; Salas, Ayón, & Gurrola, 2013). Acculturation challenges also predicted substance abuse (Gil, Wagner, & Vega, 2000), depression, suicidal ideation, and other mental health problems (Hovey & King, 1996; Rothe, 2005) and lower educational achievement (Portes & Rivas, 2011) in Latino adolescents. Adolescents in immigrant families also experienced the challenges of forging their multicultural identity while perceiving discrimination in their host country (Eckstein, 2009). Developmentally, adolescents often have fewer coping strategies and less cognitive capacity than do adults in reaction to stress, resulting in higher vulnerability to acculturation challenges (Garnefski, Legerstee, Kraaij, van Den Kommer & Teerds, 2002; Erikson, 1994; and Harter, 2003).

While most research on Latino adolescents recruited participants from a broad range of ethnic backgrounds, often the majority of participants identified themselves as Mexican (Romero & Roberts, 2003; Umana & Updegraff, 2006; Smokowski & Bacallao, 2007; Stein et al., 2012; and Stein et al., 2015) or Puerto Rican (Szalacha et al., 2003). The lack of research on Cuban immigrant adolescents warrants more investigation, especially in recognition of their within-group acculturation differences compared to other Latino subgroups. The purpose of this study is to understand how acculturation distress, especially perceived discrimination, influences mental wellbeing and academic aspirations among Cuban immigrant adolescents, and whether family cohesion buffers the negative impacts of perceived discrimination on those associations.

Literature Review

Cuban Immigrants in the United States

Due to political conflict between Cuba and the United States of America, massive Cuban immigration to the United States and other countries started when the Socialist revolution seized political power in 1959. There are approximately 1.5 million Cubans living in the United States, including about 1 million Cubans in Florida (Pew Hispanic Center, 2006): Miami-Dade County alone accounts for 42% of the Cuban population in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).Most Latino immigrants in the U.S. experienced poverty and unemployment in their country of origin (Portes and Grosfoguel, 1994; Rumbaut 2006; and Fischer, Tienda & Mitchell 2006) and are primarily motivated by the prospect of economic improvement in the U.S. Cubans have created an economically successful ethnic enclave that reflects the highest income and education level among other Latino groups in South Florida (Fisher & Tienda, 2006; Estrada et al., 2011). As Cubans continue immigrating to the U.S., different generations have faced difficult and even extreme economic situations and political oppression in their native country.

Due to the inevitable devaluing of social and economic status inherent in the process of immigrating to a more prosperous country, Cuban immigrants might experience a loss of their privileged social status, economic resources, and professional identity more than any other Latino immigration groups, especially those who arrived in the first migration waves in the 60s. A lack of data on migrant mental health raised questions regarding the increased risk for mental illness and psychological distress among a large population of Cuban immigrant families in South Florida (Alderete, Vega, Kolody & Aguilar-Gaxiola, 2000) and highlights the need to study this immigrant population, especially as this community has grown more diverse with the arrivals of successive waves of migration. 

Acculturation Stress that Latino Immigrant Adolescents Face

Acculturation is a complex process that accounts for internal and external stress in immigrant families. Stress inside the family, primarily derives from the dissonance in acculturation processes among family members. While most Latinos tend to maintain a strong Hispanic cultural identity, immigrant adolescents often adapt to mainstream culture more rapidly than parents who are more invested and have more history with their culture of origin (Telzer, et al., 2011; Salas et al., 2013). According to Johnson, Johnson, Dudley, Mitchell & Fredrickson (1997), conflicts arise when adolescents try to exercise independence and assert their authority to parents during the acculturation process.

Social discrimination accounts for most of the external stressors experienced by Latino adolescent immigrants. Research has found that immigrant adolescents experience discrimination from peers, teachers, the school environment, and their local community (Brown, 2015). Immigrant youths have identified harassment regarding their ethnicity (Brown, Alabi, Huynh & Masten, 2011), and have also reported that their teachers do not call on them because of their ethnicity, especially in secondary education settings (Brown & Chu, 2012; Greene, Way, & Pahl, 2006). Fisher, Wallace, and Fenton (2000) found that half of Latino immigrant youths reported that they had been graded unfairly; one-quarter felt they had been discouraged from joining advanced-level classes and disciplined unfairly by teachers; and that more than half reported harassment from store clerks and poor service at restaurants because of their ethnicity.

The Influences of Perceived Discrimination on Adolescents’ Depression

Many studies have found that perceived discrimination is associated with depressive symptoms among Latino adolescents (Szalacha et al., 2003; Romero & Roberts, 2003; Greene, Way & Pahl, 2006; Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff, 2006; Smokowski & Bacallao, 2007; Huynh & Fuligni, 2010; Huynh & Fuligni, 2010; Stein, Gonzalez, & Huq, 2012; Stein, Gonzalez, Cupito, Kiang & Supple, 2015; Lopez, LeBron, Graham & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016). Smokowski and Bacallao (2007) found that perceived discrimination could also significantly predict anxiety, withdrawal, somatic complaints, and low self-esteem among Latino adolescents. Based on Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff (2006) perceived discrimination influencing Latino adolescents’ self-esteem predicts the occurrence of depressive symptoms. 

The Influences of Perceived Discrimination on Adolescents’ Educational Aspiration

Educational aspiration predicts better academic achievement for adolescents (Portes & Rivas, 2011). Research on Latinos’ orientations toward education suggests that Cuban academic success may be partially attributed to a high level of trust in the educational system (Cheng and Starks, 2002). Conversely, the perception of discrimination from peers and teachers towards Latino students contributed to a reduced sense of belonging and a lack of motivation to achieve in school(Faircloth & Hamm, 2005; Verkuyten & Brug, 2003). The perception that Latino immigrant adolescents are not viewed as future professionals or potential contributors to mainstream society damages their self-esteem (Quiroz, 2001) and discourages them from pursuing college education (Salas et al., 2013). Comparing Latino students with peers in other immigrant groups, Kao and Thompson (2003) found that Latino students are more likely to demonstrate less academic achievement and lower educational aspirations. Rusin, Zong, and Batalova (2015) also reported that Cuban immigrants tend to have lower educational attainment compared to foreign-and native-born populations in the U.S.

Contrasting these findings, Salas (2013) found that Latino immigrant parents have strong educational aspirations for their children, stemming from their desire for their children to pursue higher-level academic and professional opportunities. A survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center (2009) found out 89% of Latino adolescents agreed that college education is important for having a successful life, but only 48% of them plan to get a college degree. In another study, Bohon, Johnson, and Gorman (2006) found that Cuban immigrant youth expressed stronger aspirations and expectations of college attendance than non-Latino Whites. The evident gaps between Latino immigrant adolescents’ educational aspirations and outcomes highlight the need for further examination of potential multifaceted variables—such as perceived discrimination and mental health—that could influence educational aspirations. The finding provides insights on why Latino immigrant families highly value education, but adolescents do not aspire for higher education accordingly, as it further leads to their future career choices and family prosperity.

Family Resilience Theory

This study used Walsh’s (2016) family resilience theory to conceptualize risks and protective factors for Cuban immigrant adolescents’ educational aspirations throughout the acculturation process. Family resilience theory refers to the capacity of the family system to withstand and rebound from adversity and to become stronger and more resourceful. In this study, discrimination is identified as a risk factor related to adverse outcomes in family systems and individual psychological wellbeing and family cohesion as protective resources to provide a supportive family environment buffers children from the negative effects of perceived discrimination (Brown, 2015).

Sabogal, Marín, Otero-Sabogal, Marín, and Perez-Stable (1987) identified a high level of family cohesion as the most distinctive dimension observed in Hispanic families. High levels of cohesion can protect Latino families from stress related to acculturation (Cortes, 1995). Family cohesion is defined as the “emotional bonding that family members have toward one another ” (Olsen, 1993, p.105). Although research as in Marsiglia, Kulis, Parsai, Villar, & Garcia (2009) demonstrated that cohesion levels gradually decrease within immigrant families, based on Fuligni (2006), second-generation immigrant adolescents still demonstrated more interdependent family structures than their non-immigrant peers.

This study aims to examine: (1) the mediation role of adolescents’ depression on the relationship between adolescents’ perceived discrimination and their educational aspirations; (2) the moderating effect of family cohesion on the negative impact of adolescents’ perceived discrimination on depression; and (3) the moderating effect of family cohesion on the negative impact of adolescents’ discrimination on educational aspirations. Research hypotheses are the following:

H1: the perception of discrimination negatively influences educational aspiration through the reported depression by Cuban immigrant adolescents.

H2: family cohesion intersects the relationship between perceived social discrimination and depression.

H3: family cohesion moderates the relationship between perceived social discrimination and educational aspirations. We show the hypothesized structural equation model for testing in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1

Proposed Structural Equation Model for Cuban immigrant adolescents

Method

Participants

The data came from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). The CILS was developed to analyze the adaptation processes of second-generation immigrants, which were defined either as children born in the United States of America with at least one foreign-born parent, or children born abroad but brought to the United States of American at an early age. The CILS collected three waves of data in 1992, 1995, and 2001-2003. To answer our research questions, we referred to data from the second wave, which was collected when respondents were about to graduate from high school.

In light of our specific focus on Cuban immigrant adolescents, we only included participants who met the following criteria: (1) US-born adolescents of at least one parent of Cuban origin and Cuba-born adolescents brought to the U.S. at an early age (from 1 to 7 years old); (2) adolescents aged from 14 to 17 years old; (3) adolescents attending school in the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grades; and (4) adolescents from Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas (South Florida). Using these parameters, we selected a total of 805 subjects (72.1% were born in the U.S. from at least one Cuban parent; 26.7% were born in Cuba, and the remaining 2.1% were born in other countries from at least one Cuban parent too). This sample included 400 males (49.7%) and 405 females (50.3%).

The respondents’ birth years ranged across 1975 (N= 13, 1.6%), 1976 (N= 80, 9.9%), 1977 (N= 368, 45.7%), 1978 (N= 339, 42.1%) and 1979 (N= 5, 6%). The age range was from 13-17 (M =14.04, SD =.809). School grades included ninth grade (N= 1，.1%), tenth grade (N= 3,.4%), eleventh grade (N= 444, 55.2%), and twelfth grade (N= 357, 44.3%). In this study, 100% of the sample identified Cuba as the national origin of their family, 68% have lived their entire lives in the U.S., 30.3% have lived more than 10 years, and 1.7% between 5 and 9 years. 

Measures

Perceptions of U.S. Society and Discrimination Index (PSDI). To assess the perception of discrimination experienced by Cuban immigrant adolescents, participants completed the PSDI (Portes & Bach, 1985). This scale consisted of 6 items measuring views on the existence of discrimination in the U.S. including the following two questions furnished as examples: “There was racial discrimination in economic opportunities in the U.S.”, and “There were many conflicts between different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.” Responses ranged from 1 (agree a lot) to 4 (disagree a lot). To simplify interpretation, we reversely scored the participants’ original item responses so that higher scores conveyed higher perceptions of discrimination. Previous research demonstrated good internal consistencies of Cronbach alpha at .82 and .83 with different Latino immigrant subgroups (Portes & Bach, 1985). In this study, the PSDI’s Cronbach’s alpha was .52.

Family cohesion. To measure family cohesion, participants answered 3 items from the Family Cohesion Scale (Olson et al., 1983), asking respondents how often each of the following was true about their immediate family: “Family members liked to spend free time with each other”, “Family members felt very close to each other”; and “Family togetherness was very important”. The Family Cohesion Scale demonstrated good internal consistency within the CILS, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .85 (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). Responses ranged from 1 (never) to 5 (always), where higher scores indicated greater family cohesion. In this study, Cronbach’s alpha showed a good internal consistency at .86.

Depression. Participants in the study completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Short-Form Depression Scale (CES-D) (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). Participants answered 4 items to identify feelings of sadness, difficulties in accomplishing tasks, eating problems, and feelings of depression. Respondents rated how often during the past week they: “felt sad,” “could not get going,” “did not feel like eating,” and “felt depressed.” Answers were scored on a scale from 1 (rarely-less than once a week) to 4 (most of the time), with higher scores indicating an increased depressive affect. In a previous study, the CES-D demonstrated good reliability at a Cronbach’s alpha of .87 assessing depression in Latino adolescents (Umana-Taylor & Updegraff, 2007). In this study, we obtained an acceptable internal consistency with a Cronbach alpha of .75. 

Educational aspiration. The Youth Adaptation and Growth Questionnaire II (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001) was used to measure education wants, attainable education level, and parent education preference. Questions included: “What is the highest level of education that you would like to achieve?” “Realistically speaking, what is the highest level of education that you think you will get?”, and “What is the highest level of education that your parents want you to get?”. Answers ranged from 1 (less than high school) to 5 (finish a graduate degree). Answers were summed into final scores, higher scores indicating higher educational aspirations. In a study with children of immigrants using this scale, Rumbaut (1994) obtained good reliability, with a Cronbach alpha of .80. For this study, Cronbach’s alpha was .74, indicating an acceptable internal consistency.

Analytical Strategy

We initially examined the data and deleted participants that had missing values. We then created variables from the cases before linking the data to the AMOS model. For the moderation path, we followed the recommendations of Aiken & West (1991) and Pritcher, Rucker & Hayes (2007) to center the independent variables. This allowed for easier interpretation of moderation analysis and reduced multicollinearity issues. All paths reported in the model were standardized beta coefficients.

We conducted an analysis using structural equation modeling in AMOS (Version 25) (Blunch, 2012) to examine the mediating role of adolescent depression (AD) on the relationship between adolescent perceived discrimination (APD) and educational aspiration (AEA), and the moderating effects of family cohesion (FC) on the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration, and perceived discrimination and depression. Based on the modification index offered by AMOS, the authors decided a final model with a better fit for the data. Finally, we used the Interaction Program (Soper, 2013) to conduct follow-up analyses of significant moderation. This program used three specific values (e.g., one standard deviation below the mean, the mean value of the moderator, and one standard deviation above the mean value) to create three regression lines graphing significant interactions among the moderator, independent and dependent variables.

Results

Table 1 shows that perceived discrimination was positively related to depression (β = .11, p < .01) and negatively realted to family cohesion (β = -. 14, p < .01). Depression was negatively related to educational aspiration (β = -.12, p < .01) and family cohesion (β = -. 28, p < .01). Educational aspiration was positively related to family cohesion (β =.14, p < .01).

Initial Model

The proposed SEM among studied variables is depicted in Figure 2. The hypothesized model between all study variables appeared to be an adjusted identification of the data. Following the recommendations of Gallagher, Ting, & Palmer (2008), a variety of goodness-of-fit indices were used, χ² (0) is .00, p = .00, RMSEA= .122 with 90 % CI [.10 to .14], GFI = 1, CFI = 1, and NFI = 1. 

Figure 2

Initial model: Standardized regression estimates of the moderated mediation model

In this initial model, the results showed two insignificant paths: the path from perceived discrimination to educational aspiration (β = .00, SE= .02, p =.76 >.05) and the interaction between family cohesion and perceived discrimination (FC × PD-moderator) was not significantly associated with adolescent depression (β = – .02, SE= .01, p = .50 > .05). Family cohesion did not function as a moderator to influence the relationship between adolescents’ perceived discrimination and depression. We deleted two insignificant paths and run the model to have a better model fit.

Final Model

The final model (Figure 3) between all study variables appeared to be a good fit to the data, χ² (2) is .46, p = .79 > .05, RMSEA= .00 with 90 % CI [.00 to .04], GFI = 1, CFI = 1, and NFI = 1. The significant paths in the initial model remained significant.  

Figure 3

Final model: Standardized regression estimates of the moderated mediation model

Direct Effects among Perceived Discrimination, Depression, and Educational Aspiration

The final model showed that perceived discrimination was positively related to depression (β = .07, SE =.03, p < .05). This result indicated that the perception of discrimination predicted depression in Cuban immigrant adolescents. Depression was negatively associated with educational aspiration (β = -.09, SE=.03, p < .05), suggesting that depression predicted lower educational aspiration in this group. Family cohesion was negatively related to depression (β =. -27, SE=.03, p < .05). This result coincided with Perez, Dawson, & Suárez-Orozco’s study (2011) that close family ties in Latino families can decrease depressive feelings in their members. Finally, family cohesion showed a positive association with educational aspiration (β = .13, SE = .02, p <. 05), indicating that greater family cohesion predicted higher educational aspiration.

Mediating Effects of Depression                         

The hypothesized model also tested whether depression mediated the relationship between the adolescents’ perceived discrimination and their educational aspirations, as well as the relationship between family cohesion and educational aspiration. The standardized indirect effect of perceived discrimination on educational aspiration through depression was statistically significant (β = – .01, SE=.01, p =.04, 95% CI [ -.02, .00]), indicating that depression fully mediated the effects of perceived discrimination on the adolescents’ educational aspiration as the path from perceived discrimination to educational aspiration was insignificant (β = .00, SE= .02, p =.76 >.05). The standardized indirect effect of family cohesion on educational aspiration through depression was also significant (β = .03, SE=.01, p =.02, 95% CI [ .01, .05]), indicating that depression partially mediated the effects of family cohesion on the educational aspiration as the path from family cohesion and educational aspiration was still significant (β = .13, SE = .02, p <. 05) . 

Moderating Effects of Family Cohesion

The result in Figure 3 showed that the path from the interaction between family cohesion and perceived discrimination (FC x PD-moderator) was significantly associated with educational aspiration (β = – .10, SE= .01, p =.01 < .05). Family cohesion functioned as a significant moderator to intersect the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration. The post hoc analysis through the Interaction Program (Soper, 2013) identified that only those Cuban immigrant adolescents who reported +1 standard deviation above the mean of family cohesion had a significantly negative slope in relation to their perceived discrimination and educational aspiration (β = – .06, SE=.03, p =.04, 95% CI [ -.12, .-00]). However, perceived discrimination for adolescents who reported -1 standard deviation below the mean of family cohesion was not significantly related to educational aspiration (β = .06, SE=.03, p=.08, 95% CI [ -.01, .12]). (see Figure 4).

Figure 4

Interaction of family cohesion in predicting educational aspiration for Cuban immigrant adolescents

                                               Discussion

One goal of the study was to investigate the mediating role of Cuban immigrant adolescents’ depression on the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration. The present study also examined the moderating role of family cohesion in the relationship between perceived discrimination and depression as well as educational aspiration. The results found in our model supported our hypotheses based on family resiliency theory (Walsh, 2016). Perceived discrimination negatively impacted educational aspirations through depression experienced by Cuban immigrant adolescents. The results supported another interaction hypothesis that family cohesion significantly moderated the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspirations; however, the relationship between perceived discrimination and lower educational aspirations were more salient for Cuban immigrant adolescents in a more cohesive family living environment.

                                     Limitations and Suggestions

There are several limitations in this study that readers should be aware of when interpreting findings. First, the reliability of the perceived discrimination scale was low, which might have prevented the discovery of potential significant relationships. It was possible that, due to many Cubans living in highly concentrated Cuban enclaves, Cuban immigrant adolescent participants might report lower incidences of perceived discrimination where the enclave functioned as cultural protection against discrimination. In addition, Cuban immigrant adolescents, who were still learning appropriate social cues and behaviors in the host nation, might not be as sensitive to the discrimination they experienced as adults with more social experience.

Second, findings of this study might not be generalized to the overall population of Cuban immigrant adolescents, especially those living in other areas of the United States. Third, all the data used was self-reported by participants: future research could derive data from other sources to provide more valid findings. Fourth, this study used data collected solely in the second wave of the CILS and was considered to be a cross-sectional study. Cautions should be applied when inferring causal relationships among variables in the tested model. Fifth, due to small sample sizes in other Latino subgroups in the CILS, the study could not reliably analyze the hypothesized model across different subgroups. Future research could test whether the hypothesized model applies to other Latino subgroups which may have different experiences of discrimination and family cohesion 

Despite these limitations, this study helped us better understand how perceived discrimination influences the mental health and educational aspirations of Cuban immigrant adolescents, and how family cohesion intersected the relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration. These findings also provided insight into how family cohesion can directly improve the mental health and educational aspiration of Cuban immigrant adolescents through the acculturation process. Future research could expand the model to include additional socio-demographic, family, and acculturative variables, enabling more complex analyses and further increasing our understanding of the unique adaptive processes of Cuban immigrant adolescents.

Proposed Transformative Action Study

Building on prior quantitative findings, we propose that future research utilize a transformative action research study design that seeks to investigate the topic further by collaboratively examining and addressing how Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families experience the perceived discrimination, family cohesion, depression, and educational aspiration, with the goal of co-creating culturally responsive family- and school-based interventions that promote mental health and educational equity. The study would unfold across four interconnected phases, each emphasizing participant voice, collective meaning-making, and action.

Procedures

Phase 1 Participatory Inquiry. The study would conduct a participatory inquiry or co-interpretation of findings to process the quantitative outcomes. Initial data collection focused on exploring participants’ interpretations of discrimination, family cohesion, depression, and educational aspiration. The study will need to recruit participants including Cuban immigrant adolesents from families with high family cohesion and low family cohesion, parents and caregivers, school counselors, teachers, community advocates. The format could be semi-structured individual interviews with adolescents and caregivers, youth-lead focus groups with participatory prompts, family dialogue circles could be facilitated in participants’ preferred language (English or Spanish), digital storytelling allowing adolescents to visually represent experiences of support, pressure, and resilience, etc. Narrative interviews could center on discrimination encounters, educational pressure, emotional labor within cohesion families.

Sam & Berry (2010) stated the acculturation process is complex, and varies for each individual based on their developmental stage and tasks (e.g., development of self and identity), personality, psychological factors, and social and contextual factors (e.g., reasons for immigration, or the compatibility of cultural values or political environments). Thus, it is important to get to know the particular lived experiences of discrimination from Cuban immigrant adolescents and families. During these focus groups, Cuban immigrant adolescents and their family members could share their own backgrounds and the specific discrimination scenarios they encountered regarding immigration and acculturation. They can bring photos, or other materials to help their narratives. Expected sharing include their experienced and perceived discrimination in a variety of occasions such as in school settings, neighborhood, and community.

Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families would also need to discuss their family relationships, educational pressure, Educational aspirations, how family cohesion was experienced in their family relationships, and their attitudes towards mental health and seeking help for mental health needs.

After discussions on Cuban immigrant adolescents and families’ experience related to immigration and acculturation, participants will then be presented with accessible summaries of the original quantitative findings and invited to reflect on how these patterns resonated with—or diverged from—their lived experiences. The research findings include the positive relationship between perceived discrimination and depression, the negative relationship between perceived discrimination and educational aspiration, the negative relationship between depression and educational aspiration, and the negative relationships between family cohesion and depression and educational aspirations. Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families will be asked to reflect on how these findings align with their lived experiences or how they attribute them if they don’t. 

Regarding family cohesion, Cuban adolescents and their families will be asked how they define it in general and during the immigration process. If they identified themselves as having high family cohesion, they need to reflect on whether perceived discrimination is negatively associated with educational aspirations. If they identified themselves as having low family cohesion, they would need to reflect on whether perceived discrimination is unrelated to their educational aspirations.

Phase 2 Collective Critical Reflection. Using collective reflection sessions, participants will engage in critical dialogue to examine how school practices, immigration narratives, discrimination, and mental health stigma shaped adolescent well-being and aspirations.

Cuban adolescents and their families will discuss common or dominant immigration narratives about Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families, and how they think school practices reinforce discrimination, and what school practices have reduced or reinforced discrimination. They will also discuss how the discrimination narratives have impacted Cuban immigrant adolescents’ own and family expectations for them, especially their educational aspirations. What are the cultural meanings attached to educational success, sacrifice, and obligation? When these expectations intersect with social barriers, how would Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families deal with the conflict? When Cuban immigrant adolescents’ mental health is at risk, how does the mental health stigma affect their help-seeking behavior and efforts?  

In the focus group of Cuban immigrant adolescents, they will discuss the dual role of family cohesion: under what circumstances do they feel it functions as a support? In what circumstances do they feel it functions as a pressure? When discrimination is present, how do these adolescents interpret and define family cohesion and how they think about the role of family cohesion? If they identified themselves as having high family cohesion, do they feel that perceived discrimination is negatively related to educational aspirations? If they identified themselves as having low family cohesion, do they feel that perceived discrimination is not related to educational aspirations? And why?

How do families actively respond to discrimination in school contexts? What actions do adolescents and parents believe would reduce depression and support educational aspiration?

This phase of research emphasizes surfacing structural and systemic contributors to psychological distress rather than locating problems solely within individuals or families.

Phase 3 Co-Design Transformative Actions. The study will need to co-design transformative actions. Based on priorities identified by participants, the research team would support the collaborative design and implementation of culturally grounded action initiatives, which may include:

Youth Empowerment Actions. Peer mentoring programs and Leadership training focused on educational navigation could help empower Cuban immigrant adolescents. When depressive symptoms have been noticed among Cuban immigrant adolescents, the mental health clinician and the school counselor could also assess the level of perceived discrimination, which might contribute to Cuban immigrant adolescents’ depressive symptoms. According to Erickson (1968), one of the major tasks for adolescents is to explore and develop a stable, consistent self-identity through important interpersonal relationships. Members of oppressed minority groups could possibly develop a damaging self-concept by internalizing negative and prejudiced comments about their culture from the dominant society. Perceived discrimination could lead to confusion around self-identity, which can, in turn, lead to depression (Donovan, Huynh, Park, Kim, Lee & Robertson, 2013).

If that is the case, processing the perceived discrimination becomes essential for the clinical treatment of depression for these Cuban immigrant adolescents. Low academic aspiration could present with depressive symptoms since a strong correlation has been found in this study. Mental health clinicians and school counselors would need to check for perceived discrimination as a potential contributor to low academic aspirations as well.

Family-centered Interventions. Psychological education and prevention programs could be provided for Cuban immigrant adolescents and their families to address the discrimination experienced by these Cuban immigrant adolescents. During program meetings, Cuban immigrant adolescents and their family members could hear from other group members’ experiences, discuss coping skills, and share support with one another, so these Cuban immigrant adolescents would be less likely to be negatively impacted by discrimination. This type of psychoeducation or prevention program could take place in the school or community settings where Latino immigrant adolescents reside.

Family workshops could be implemented to address family cohesion. Family cohesion has been identified as a protective factor among Cuban immigrant adolescents to buffer the negative impact of perceived discrimination. Cuban immigrant adolescents raised in families that value family cohesion would feel supported and valued, which helps them cope with distress and depressive feelings. According to Coleman (1988), when they felt a sense of belonging and parents were attentive to and cared for their future, they had higher educational aspirations. As a result, family workshops focused on particular family values, family support, and intergenerational communication tools would help improve family cohesion and better serve the needs of Cuban immigrant adolescents in their families.

Mental health clinicians and school counselors could highlight family cohesion as a strength of Cuban immigrant families and involve close family members in mental health treatment or intervention efforts. Family therapy sessions are particularly helpful in engaging family systems when treating the mental health needs of individual family members. Community-based, trauma-informed, and parenting programs tailored to Cuban immigrant families would help improve family cohesion, mental health, and academic aspiration among Cuban immigrant adolescents.

School-based Interventions. School-based advocacy or professional development initiatives focused on culturally responsive practices would help alleviate the perceived discrimination and promote educational development for Cuban immigrant adolescents. Training for school personnel, such as teachers and school counselors, could be implemented, as Benner and Graham (2013) found that discrimination from school personnel was associated with poor academic performance, and that discrimination from peers was associated with greater psychological maladjustment among adolescents. DeGarmo & Martinez Jr. (2006) reported that even in a highly cohesive family, Cuban immigrant adolescents might still feel segregation in school settings, which might lead to higher perceptions of discrimination and lower educational aspirations and achievement. As a result, diversity and inclusivity training could be emphasized in school personnel training and the school curriculum to eliminate discrimination against Cuban immigrant adolescents. This would be helpful for Cuban immigrant adolescents to experience less institutional or social hostility and exclusion at school. 

Phase 4 Evaluation and Iteration. Evaluation focused on both process and outcome indicators will be used for the transformative action study. Quantitative measures of perceived discrimination, depressive symptoms, educational aspiration, and family cohesion will be administered pre- and post-action. Qualitative data—including participant reflections, group discussions, and researcher field notes—will be analyzed to assess perceived impact, feasibility, and sustainability for the transformative actions used in this study. Findings from this phase will inform subsequent cycles of refinement and action.

Data Analysis

Qualitative data will be analyzed using a transformative lens-informed thematic analysis. Coding will be conducted collaboratively, with participants invited to review and refine emerging themes to ensure cultural resonance and credibility. Attention will be given to identifying both protective and constraining dimensions of family cohesion. Quantitative data will be analyzed descriptively and inferentially to examine changes over time and triangulate with qualitative findings. Data integration will occur at multiple points through joint displays and collaborative interpretation sessions.

The expected outcomes include improved mental health and educational aspiration among Cuban immigrant adolescents, improved family communication and family cohesion among Cuban immigrant families, and improved school environment for culturally responsive education.

                                               Conclusion

This paper presented a study that adopted a traditional quantitative research approach in exploring the role of family cohesion in Cuban immigrant adolescents’ perceived discrimination, depression, and academic aspiration. The results indicated a protective role for family cohesion and supported the research hypothesis. Limitations of the research methods have been discussed, and a possible follow-up transformative action study design was also provided in the paper.

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Exceptional Stress Coping Strategies Used During theCOVID-19 Pandemic: A Positive Deviance Study

Emilia Suviala¹, Marissa Sogluizzo¹, Olufunke Olufunsho Adegoke^1,2, Ilene Naomi Rusk^1,3, and Brian A. Gerrard^1,4

¹Center for Disaster Healing Resources Research Team, Institute for School-Based Family Counseling, California, USA

²Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

³Healthy Brain Program, Brain and Behaviour Clinic, Boulder, Colorado, USA

⁴Western Institute for Social Research, Berkeley, California, USA

Contact: emilia.suviala@gail.com

Abstract

Resilience-based strategies for coping with stress during and after disasters are needed now more than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic created physical, psychological, and social stressors for many individuals and communities around the world. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, starting with an electronic survey to identify high-coping individuals for inclusion in the positive deviance study. Interviews were then conducted to collect data from these positive deviants. A sample of eight exceptionally well-coping individuals across four countries; Finland, Canada, Nigeria, and the United States, were identified for further analysis to understand how and why certain coping strategies helped mitigate disaster-related stress. The findings highlight the importance of maintaining social connections, helping others, engaging in purpose-driven activities, exercising, fostering a growth-oriented positive mindset, cultivating psychological flexibility, and integrating multiple adaptive coping strategies to enhance stress resilience during the pandemic.

                                               Introduction

The post–COVID-19 pandemic period offers a critical opportunity to examine which psychological coping strategies effectively mitigated disaster-related stress, with the goal of refining resilience-building interventions, supporting post-traumatic growth, and strengthening preparedness for future disasters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries implemented various stringent measures to help curtail the spread of the virus, including quarantine, social isolation, and travel restriction mandates (Chinazzi et al., 2021; Lai et al., 2021; Ashcroft et al., 2021), which were all associated with enormous psychological and psychosocial stress for individuals and communities (Otu et al., 2020; Stanton et al., 2020). Many countries reported increased psychological consequences including stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder among various populations with different socioeconomic backgrounds (Xiong et al., 2020).

Many coping strategies have been identified as effective in mitigating psychological stress during the pandemic, such as positive reframing, humor, and acceptance (Gurvich et al., 2020). These involve cognitive behavioral strategies, maintaining perspective, and other ways to build resilience during challenging times, highlighting that simple acceptance can reduce distress and promote healthy and adaptive coping strategies. For spiritually inclined people, drawing upon prayer and faith was shown to provide comfort (Kar & Kar, 2020). Engaging in regular physical activity was found to alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic (Piercy et al., 2020). Our previous study (Adegoke et al., 2022) and Yang et al., (2022) showed that social connection and family support were positively associated with adopting effective stress-coping strategies and benefited mental health. Furthermore, engaging in healthy behaviors and practicing meditation were used as positive coping strategies in people with underlying health conditions and in those experiencing inequalities resulting from structural racism and ethnicity as seen with African American ethnic groups (Yedjou et al., 2023). 

Resilience refers to the capacity to successfully adapt to challenging life circumstances through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and is conceptualized as a dynamic skill that can be developed (American Psychological Association, 2024), whereas posttraumatic growth describes positive psychological change that emerges through the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). In the context of disaster-related stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, resilience is seen as a pivotal factor in determining how stress affects individuals, and how easily they return to psychological balance and emotional regulation following the challenge. Resilient individuals tend to manage stress through adaptive responses (e.g., emotional, cognitive, and behavioral coping strategies) that help them regain equilibrium and sustain positive psychological growth despite the adversity (Gloria & Steinhardt, 2014; Smith et al., 2008). For some, resilience allows for learning, meaning making, and a potential for posttraumatic growth.

Positive deviants are individuals within communities who demonstrate superior efficacy in problem-solving compared to peers facing similar challenges (Sternin, 2002). The core objective of the positive deviance framework is to identify behaviors that enable adaptability despite limited resources, with the ultimate goal of amplifying and disseminating these strategies for broader adoption. Unlike general surveys that catalog coping strategies without evaluating their success, the positive deviance approach specifically targets outcomes. Consequently, this method is particularly well-suited for studying resilience and posttraumatic growth, as it shifts the analytical focus from pathology to adaptive capacity. By examining subjects who achieve disproportionately positive outcomes amidst widespread adversity, the positive deviance model elucidates mechanisms of thriving that are often obscured in deficit-based paradigms. Furthermore, given the unprecedented demands of the global pandemic, such as the need for creative social adaptations due to distancing, this approach allows researchers to capture unique, resilience-based coping strategies that standardized surveys might miss, offering valuable insights for broader resilience research.

                                               Purpose of Study

This study is Phase II of our Phase I study: Ways of Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic (Adegoke et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was, using positive deviance approach, to identify and interview persons across different countries who coped exceptionally well with pandemic-related stress to understand better how and why certain coping strategies are effective in mitigating disaster-related stress. This can provide insight into building community and individual resilience in the event of future disasters by improving recommendations on how to cope with disaster-related stress.

Additionally, we hoped to determine if there were any trends in our positive deviance data that were similar to patterns found in the Phase 1 study (Adegoke et al., 2022). This study found several factors (contact with others and with pets/animals, keeping busy, exercise, and having multiple coping strategies) that appeared to be associated with reduced pandemic-related stress.

Further, this Phase II study could generate new hypotheses regarding how certain coping strategies used allowed some people better cope with disaster-related stress than others in their communities, and what other factors may play a role in the relationship between coping strategy utilization and resilience.

                                               Methodology

Study design

The study used a positive deviance design. Participants were selected from an electronic survey originally intended to complement the positive deviance interviews. Because our sample sizes fell short of our goals for the surveys, we are presenting only the positive deviance findings. The study used a cross-sectional electronic survey to identify participants for the positive deviance study, which included detailed interviews with high coping participants to identify best practices in reducing pandemic-related stress. 

Data collection

An electronic survey using Google Forms was disseminated, which included 10 multi-part questions to identify those who coped well with their pandemic-related stress for the positive deviant interviews and ascertain which coping mechanisms were used to cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how effective such coping mechanisms were in managing this stress. The survey questions were extracted from our Phase 1 survey, which was utilized in the qualitative interviews; additional questions were added based on current research related to disaster-related stress and the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was distributed internationally using a snowball sampling method between October 2022 and March 2023 in an attempt to reach a sample size of approximately 100 residents in 5-10 countries to perform a cross-country analysis.  The survey was distributed via email or text message, which included a written consent form. At the end of the survey, participants were asked to further distribute the survey to friends and family who were 18 years of age or older. The snowball sampling method used did not satisfy the goal of reaching 100 responses across 5-10 countries, and therefore, the survey was concluded in March 2023 with 343 responses. The countries with the highest sample sizes were chosen for selection of positive deviants resulting in a final sample size of 289 participants from the United States (n=81), Nigeria (n=101), Finland (n=70), and Canada (n=37). 

Selection of Positive Deviants

Participants who coped very well with their stress were selected for the positive deviance study. How well one coped with their stress was calculated utilizing responses from the survey to determine mean coping scores. A pool of effective pandemic copers was selected by obtaining an overall positive coping score for the 8 survey items shown in Table 1. Each item was rated using a 6-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree, Moderately Agree, Slightly Agree, Slightly Disagree, Moderately Disagree, Strongly Disagree).

Table 1

Survey Items Used to Identify Positive Deviants

Possible coping scores ranged from 6 to 48, and high copers were defined as those who had a coping score of 31 or higher, based on the 50th percentile due to a small sample size. Low copers were defined as those who had a coping score of 28 or lower, based on the 30th percentile.  Interviewers called, texted, and/or emailed all 37 high copers who had consented to a follow-up interview and completed 17 interviews in total. 

Interview

The interviews took place via Zoom between June 2023 and March 2024 by a team interviewer who was a resident of the respective country. The interviews were conducted in English except for the Finnish sample whose interview transcripts were translated from Finnish to English by the interviewer. The interviews were recorded using the Zoom transcript feature, which allowed interviewees to review their transcripts before they were analyzed.

The 45–60-minute semi-structured interview explored participants’ coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on positive stress-reduction techniques, covering the entire pandemic period and related public health mandates. After a warm-up question designed to help the interviewee reflect on their experiences during the pandemic period, questions addressed stress levels and behavior during the pandemic (What aspect or aspects of the pandemic was/were most stressful for you?), strategies to reduce stress (What things helped you the most during the pandemic? The first most helpful? The second? The third?), healthy habits/self-care (Did you develop any healthy habits or self-care practices during the pandemic?), and community involvement (Can you tell us about any community initiatives or collaborations that you were a part of that helped you deal with the challenges posed by the stress of the pandemic?). We also inquired about the origins, persistence, and sharing of these coping strategies (Were these ways of coping that you just mentioned new strategies or ones you had used before COVID-19? Do you continue to use these ways of dealing with stress in your life? Did you share these coping strategies you used with others?) and whether the interviewee had observed any innovative ways of coping that other had employed (Were there any innovative ways of coping with the pandemic that you heard others were using that you thought valuable?). Prompts were used to encourage further detail (Can you tell me more about that? Could you give an example of that?)

Data Analysis

The qualitative data was analyzed both narratively and thematically. Narrative analysis was conducted by four of the authors to understand the unique lived experiences of each interviewee. After multiple rereadings, a summary was produced for each interviewee, highlighting key aspects of their pandemic experience. Coping strategy and trigger event analyses were based on the categories elicited from our Phase 1 study (Adegoke et al., 2022). Lastly, a thematic approach was employed to identify patterns in the data. All interview transcripts were reviewed multiple times to ensure familiarity with the content, and then coded by the first author. Initial categories and themes were refined through discussions with all authors. Coding was conducted using constant comparison to explore similarities and differences across the data, ultimately leading to the identification of a set of attributes associated with positive deviants.

Ethical Considerations

Approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Western Institute for Social Research (in Berkeley, California). The email invitation sent to identified participants emphasized participation in the interviews, which was voluntary, and identifiable personal information would not be used in any publication of the research. All interviewees provided written informed consent prior to the interview. No excerpts were used that could identify any interviewee.

                                               Findings

In this study, participants identified as positive deviants are also referred to as high-copers and resilient individuals due to their exceptional ability to adapt.

Quantitative analysis was utilized to calculate coping scores for the identification of positive deviants (Table 2).

Table 2

Mean Coping Scores among the highest and lowest copers by country (N=289)

*The p-value corresponds to the p-value calculated utilizing a t-test of 2 samples with unequal variances

As seen in Table 2 coping scores ranged from 5 to 30. The mean coping scores were calculated for the overall sample (N=289), among high copers (n=149), and low copers (n=103), as well as by country. The two-way t-tests conducted for the overall sample and by country revealed that the mean coping scores among high copers were statistically significantly different from the mean coping scores among low copers, overall and by country (Table 2).

From 17 high copers interviewed, two interviews from each country (n=8) were chosen for further analysis. The selection criteria focused on identifying interviewees whose coping strategies appeared to be particularly effective. The age of the selected positive deviants ranged from 24 to 70. The majority of them were female (n=7) and had a Bachelor’s or Advanced degree (n=7). Six of the positive deviants self-identified as White (European/North American), and two self-identified as Black/African. All eight participants had a middle-class socioeconomic background. Three of eight positive deviants were single, two married and three divorced. Five were living either with a partner or with family member(s) and three were living alone during the pandemic. The coping scores among positive deviants varied from 31 to 41, with a mean coping score of 36.6, consistent with the mean coping score among high copers overall, indicating that the selected interviews for analysis were representative of the sample of high copers in this study (Table 2).

                   Narrative Analysis: Description of Positive Deviants

The narrative analysis highlighted the unique lived experiences of each eight positive deviant during the pandemic. Each case begins with the subject’s background details and stress-triggering events, followed by a description of the effective coping strategies employed. All participant names have been anonymized to ensure confidentiality.

I Finnish Case Study. Anna (female, White, middle class, coping score=33) in her thirties, is a professional with multiple degrees living in a major Finnish city with her preschool-aged child. Anna mentioned various positive coping techniques that contributed to her well-being during a stressful period in her life, including health, financial, and travel restriction concerns. Anna sought social contact and support from her family and community. The connection to her own child was especially valuable for her in maintaining high spirits and taking care of herself in order to be there for her child. Anna´s established yoga and meditation routine brought her comfort as well as mitigated her stress. Building on her educational background she actively sought information to alleviate her fears about the virus. Anna also coped through helping others by participating in a group art project with the purpose of creating a space to process difficult pandemic-related emotions and working as a COVID-19 test administrator in her community.

II Finnish Case Study. Elina (female, White, middle class, coping score=36), in her forties, is an entrepreneur in the retail sector living in a major Finnish city with her sister, niece, and dog. Despite a highly stressful financial situation caused by the pandemic, Elina coped well, attributing this almost entirely to her strong capacity for reflective thinking, reliance on personal resilience, and a trusting attitude toward the future. She also used reading and information-gathering as tools to better understand her negative thoughts and emotions, thereby regulating her mental state effectively. During the interview, Elina described her approach as entrepreneur-like, characterized by an agile mindset in response to unexpected life events. Although she acknowledged that the experience was extremely painful, she was also able to learn from it.

I Nigerian Case Study. Ben (male, Black/African, middle class, coping score=41) is a 24-year-old, single postgraduate at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, living with his family of orientation on the university campus. Social isolation was stressful for Ben, but he was grateful to spend time with his family. Ben was also stressed financially, but he coped with this stress through remote research analysis jobs. One inventive coping strategy Ben utilized when mandates were lifted was getting his basketball group back together. The team created a charity group to raise funds to assist others struggling with the pandemic. There was also a WhatsApp group where team members shared and discussed their challenges. Maintaining this connection helped reduce stress and foster a sense of well-being.

II Nigerian Case Study. Gloria (female, Black/African, middle class, coping score=37) is a 35-year-old, married Doctoral Student in Nigeria, working as a Program Manager on hospital-based projects. Gloria’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic was less stressful because she was able to use the time to engage with her academics and research. Gloria eased her anxiety through coping strategies such as accessing information regarding the virus and illness management. The COVID-19 pandemic shaped her behavior with the adoption of healthy hygiene habits, such as using facemasks, handwashing with soap, and using hand sanitizer. Additional coping strategies that Gloria described included bonding with her family, watching entertaining TV shows, and turning to religion through online sessions.

I Canadian Case Study. Joyce (female, White, middle class, coping score=40) age 70, is a semi-retired bookkeeper with two adult daughters, living alone in a major Canadian city. During the interview, Joyce stated that feeling isolated was “the big one for me.” She responded to this challenge by taking action. Joyce’s formation of an exercise-based activity group knitted together more than 12 persons who were also experiencing social isolation. She also demonstrated effective leadership in handling difficult situations skillfully (e.g. dealing with the member who always came late without embarrassing her) and in promoting group cohesion. Her suggestions for managing this type of support group are practical and will be useful to persons who want to form this type of group to combat social isolation. It should also be noted that Joyce also engaged in multiple stress reduction activities during the pandemic: a bi-weekly Zoom discussion group; completing a 20-hour online Yale University course on Happiness; regular exercise; knitting a challenging sweater for her daughter; and watching documentaries and multiple episode series on TV. This is consistent with our previous finding that suggested that persons who used multiple coping strategies managed their stress more effectively.

II Canadian Case Study. Avi (female, White, middle class, coping score=31) is a 62-year-old divorced woman with two adult children and living in the center of a major Canadian city. She currently works part-time in the film industry. For Avi the main source of stress during the pandemic was related to her finances. To alleviate the feelings of stress Avi focused on her close social relationships and cooking for her friends. She relaxed more and exercised more. She did acts of service; prepared and served food for her community and donated coats for homeless. Making a point of seeing her children often was a strong resource for her. The pandemic time gave her more opportunities for self-determination and a sense of freedom, which she expressed as things she felt grateful about. One of her most striking characteristics was her lack of fear of getting sick or dying. She expressed a kind of equanimity about dying and that was an implicit but helpful stress coping strategy as most governments, the media and individuals were most focused upon protecting people from dying which Avi saw as both a manipulation of the truth and a fear she did not have. Another resource strategy which Avi used was to put herself in the role of “witness” of the pandemic experience as she is in the film industry. She saw the whole pandemic as if through the lens of a film camera and that allowed her some distance from the experience. Feelings of gratitude for big and small things helped her to keep perspective and cope as well. 

I U.S. Case Study. Maria (female, White, middle class, coping score=39), in her fifties, is a sales and marketing professional and lives with her husband and dog in a Northern California suburb. In the start of the pandemic Maria´s brother fell sick with COVID-19. Living in different continents, and then-unknown virus made the situation scary for Maria. Wildfires with evacuations and riots in the area added stress and unpredictability to Maria´s life. Maria´s most important way of coping was reaching out and organizing several group and community events to help people to feel connected and share feelings. She used her experience as an event coordinator to organize situations where people could come together. She was involved in multiple projects, executed via digital platform, to give people safe spaces to connect and give and receive material and emotional support. Initiating social interactions strengthened Maria´s self-agency and thus, her wellbeing.

II U.S. Case Study. Sophia (female, White, middle class, coping score=36), single and in her fifties, is working in a managerial position in a large tech company. She is living alone in a suburban area in Northern California. Sophia´s self-determination, capacity to think positively, and active lifestyle carried her through pandemic times when faced with severe health concerns. She continued to keep actively in touch with the core group of friends and felt that the relationships grew even deeper. She started a new side business by doing what she loved. In general, she stayed solution-oriented and rational, took things “as they are”, and maintained her positive and hopeful thinking. Instead of dwelling on negative things she saw setbacks and change as opportunities and embraced the unknown.

Trigger Events Related to Pandemic Stress

We identified four categories that triggered pandemic-related stress among the positive deviants. Mainly, the high copers´ stress stemmed from three factors: how the pandemic restricted their daily activities, how the pandemic caused job loss and financial uncertainty, and how the pandemic negatively affected health (See Table 3).

Table 3 

Positive Deviants: Most Used Effective Coping Strategies

Only one positive deviant felt that social isolation was the main source of stress. On the other hand, restriction of activities such as travel, school, work, and events triggered stress for many. Five of the participants reported restriction of activities as their main source of stress. Due to government mandates throughout the pandemic, many people lost their jobs or were not allowed to attend work. This, coupled with the economic crisis that occurred throughout and after the pandemic, led to many people experiencing job loss and financial uncertainty, which five of the eight positive deviants reported as another main source of stress. Half of the positive deviants reported the negative effects of their health during the pandemic as a major source of stress. Four of the participants reported that they or their loved one had experienced a COVID-19 infection, leading to increased stress about their health.

Effective Stress Coping Strategies Used by Positive Deviants

We identified numerous effective coping strategies that were used by the participants to mitigate their pandemic-related stress. Table 4 shows the seven most used coping strategies among positive deviants. Most of the participants found the following coping strategies helpful in reducing their level of stress: Spending time with a friend, Spending time with family, Physical exercise, and Helping others. Half of the positive deviants used Positive thinking, Spending time in nature, or Community Connection as their way of coping.

Table 4 

Dominant Coping Strategies utilized by high and low copers of Finland, Nigeria, the United States, and Canada

In addition to the coping strategies shown in Table 4, three of the positive deviants used Watching TV & movies or Crafts & hobbies as their method of stress reduction. Also, there were two positive deviants who used Reading, Learning facts about the pandemic, Meditating, or Recreational alcohol consumption to regulate their stress. Only one participant mentioned that they used either Humor, Listening to music, Daily schedule, Spiritual practice, Avoiding thinking about pandemic or Avoiding news as their coping strategy. All high-copers employed between five and eleven positive coping strategies to mitigate their stress levels.

                   Thematic analysis: Attributes of the Positive Deviants

Thematic analysis revealed six key attributes of positive deviants related to managing pandemic-related stress: Acting with purpose, Making a positive impact in the community, Balancing emotional and rational thinking, Reframing challenges, Maintaining a flexible attitude toward change, and Demonstrating curiosity and gratitude.

Acting with purpose. From the thematic point of view, it was clear that the resilient individuals took an active approach during the pandemic and engaged in more activities to cope with their stress. Almost all participants mentioned, explicitly or implicitly, that being active and engaged during the pandemic was an important way to cope. Many of them enjoyed movies, reading, and listening to music and/or podcasts during the pandemic. However, it seemed that they got bored of sole consumption of entertainment quite easily and started to crave activities that would have a deeper purpose. All of the interviewees mentioned taking up a new project: doing crafts, deepening their spiritual practice, and learning about something new that had either a professional or a self-improving impact on their lives. 

So I, instead of dwelling and looking from the bad side, I decided to… provide solutions instead…Started knitting… I don´t want to just knit. I wanna create something beautiful. And so I started going around browsing through Internet to find beautiful yarns. …an actual scarf that you would wear during the winter, but also… fashion accessories.  …it went from an idea from wanting to do something and fill my days while I couldn’t work and having something meaningful to do into eventually a side business… So I’m actually right now creating a website and finding other ways like Etsy and other areas where to sell them. And this year I’m also going to actual stores, local stores here that are selling clothing. (Sophia, United States)

I had proposals that I´ve written, ideas, research ideas that I jotted down. I wrote… some journal articles and book chapters. … I formed a research team. It was during that COVID-19 that I joined two research teams. One, I was able to produce paper… I also joined some online praying platform… it was in that period that there was a program on 24 hours marathon prayer… My spiritual life developed because I had time to network, to watch… So I was able to cope spiritually too. (Gloria, Nigeria)

…We realized that the healthcare system was not doing very well. They didn’t have the masks they needed. (Nationality) people are very handy handcraft-oriented people .. They made masks and they were really kind of product developing them and improving the design. I was finding out who needed masks and delivered them to hospitals, homeless centers, private care takers, children’s hospitals etc. and optimized that we have enough of masks to deliver. (Maria, United States)

… that when I was still so sick with it and was in pretty bad shape, that it was OK, that if we could get through this, that maybe I could do something, to help with regards to the pandemic. And of course, I also had the fact that I had to try to organize some work for myself in a short time. That’s how I started as a COVID test administrator. (Anna, Finland)

Making a positive impact in the community. Half of the positive deviants either initiated themselves or actively participated in community projects. Many interviewees mentioned how helping other people and seeing how they were able to do good benefited their own mental health too.

…Basketball was like gold at that point because at every point in time, we are eager to say when are we playing? Everything became so dull and so silent, except for going to play basketball, but still taking precautions… We… established a charity that would try to help people that were in need because… that time was hard for people. … we have helped someone that his mother was ill, and he needed money. Helped someone to pay school fees. Also, someone to pay rent. …we went to the orphanage to do something there. … a lot of people expressed their eagerness to come and play and when they are going through a bad situation, they are happy when playing basketball. It keeps people away from depression. I feel communally, we were able to share basketball as a coping mechanism… We have our group chat, when anyone is going through anything, we can always come to the group and talk… there was a teammate of ours that was going through a lot. (Ben, Nigeria)

The most important coping mechanism was to get through it was community and relationships and to actually do something. … I got a contact from a couple of … people in this community and they were like “We have to make this celebration happen. Can you come and join us so that we can do it?” And since I have an event background, they wanted to invite me to join the team and there was like four weeks time to set it up and I have no idea about the virtual events platform or anything like that. And we had one platform that was not the virtual event platform. I think… such things even existing. …That was very helpful also mentally to set your time and effort to something that people would love. And we had like all the people from embassy and all different institutes that we have working in this area, or we had also some people from other cities and states on West Coast. … It was very helpful for me to just do something to these things.. Just to meet people and see that I can have some kind of purpose in the midst of this and also see how other people are coping and see that the life is still going on despite the fact that we were in the midst of the pandemic. (Maria, United States)

… I organized a walking group. A walking/hiking/ golfing/snowshoeing group which took me through all of the phases so far.  … The group has about 12 to 15 members and we can each arrange and/or post an event at any time.  …We meet several times a week.  …That gives me my contact with the outside world and it is exercise but I think the social benefits far outweigh the physical benefits of the exercise. The social benefits couldn’t even be measured. I also felt really, really good about it because I was the organizer and I felt that I was doing something for everybody in the group.  …All the other members are benefitting from this. Their comments are usually “Joyce, you saved us all during COVID.”  “What would we have done without you?” etc.  The truth is, they saved me as much as they think I saved them.  It was a life saver and helped tremendously. (Joyce, Canada)

… They (two friends) then asked me to join this… project… It was specifically made in connection with this pandemic… we wanted to share these things, to create, as it were, this kind of common shared emotional space, where you can share those experiences of sadness and… what the pandemic is and what it has meant.… it was also meaningful to me, because I felt that by doing it with one of my friend, who was really unwell. I was able to support him in some way, so that he regained his ability to function, because he was so entrenched in that kind of loneliness and it was just terrible… with everything and in poor condition and… then in its own way it helps to process… (Anna, Finland)

Balancing emotional and rational thinking. One aspect that repeated in positive deviants’ interviews was a mental feature that can be described as a balance between emotional and rational thinking. The resilient individuals did not deny themselves from feeling challenging emotions, however, they did not let such emotions take control of their minds. It seems that many of the interviewees had an exceptional capacity to regulate their emotions and thoughts without getting overwhelmed.

In a crisis situation I become really calm… more like a problem-solving mode… If I feel like crying, I will cry and it is relieving… if I’m furious, I´ll try to let it out somehow, but I don’t want to start blaming myself or anybody else… I don´t want to avoid them because of course disappointments or sadness or fears, you need to listen to them.. and process… When I think, should I cry hysterically or… do I survive better if I collect myself and handle this as well as possible. (Elina, Finland)

An important part of my journey was I didn´t panic… When I’m stressed, I go into myself, that´s what I did during COVID. At least at the start. (Avi, Canada)

The rational Sophia comes in my brain again… OK, how do we go from here? I’ve got a great oncologist; I have great doctors. I know it’s gonna take time. What do I have to do in order to make myself survive until something can be done? And I can’t live this way in fear. I have to accept that. I have to come to an acceptance of what it is, and I have to again, I resorted myself into. Being active, being positive going, I found myself listening to positive music, beautiful music. (Sophia, United States)

Regulating emotions is key and I always try to search for the good sides of things… more like opportunities to grow and evolve… Often it is quite conscious… I read, I search for information. But it is like a dialogue with myself when I realize that there are anxious feelings. Or I notice that I worry too much about something when there is no need to worry about it. I am in dialogue with myself and I kind of shake the worry out of my shoulders… It feels awfully natural. Kind of “it happened like this and what now?”. (Elina, Finland)

Reframing challenges. Another feature that repeated among positive deviants was a capacity to distance oneself from the present moment to see the pandemic times as a temporary phase in life.

In this situation, you have to be able to act or somehow look for the same perspective from afar… That… this is transitory. Maybe it is my own way… to try in such difficult life stages, you somehow become aware of a similar historical passage, that it won’t last forever, that it is. That we can figure out that it’s this specific time, which is why it’s so important to work through these things and that maybe at some point we’ll know more, even though, for example, the research data was on a really shaky basis in the beginning, it was the vaccines or the virus in general. Then, however, the fact that it is little by little. That things clear up… (Anna, Finland)

There’s light at the end of the tunnel and that kind of has helped me go through everything. That’s always been the mindset… Positivity. (Sophia, United States)

I’m in a film (industry) and I saw everything through a movie lens. I looked through a beautiful camera into human nature. …It was more like you´re… looking as a witness and observer and not in it. It helped. (Avi, Canada)

Maintaining a flexible attitude towards change. One thing that seemed to be an effective approach to managing stress among positive deviants was a flexible attitude toward change. Some of the interviewees mentioned that while some things are out of their control, such as the global pandemic, there are things in their surroundings that they have control of. Thus, they actively generated creative solutions to preserve the activities they viewed as essential to their coping.

I’m a person who goes with the flow. I´m working on something, something comes up. I have to pivot. I just do it, I don’t dwell on it… I heard about other people ..that had a hard time with change. They didn’t do as well… important to be flexible and embrace the unknown. (Sophia, United States)

Now you are just aware of this evanescence. That of course you should enjoy life, that you shouldn’t be afraid, but that this can change in a very short time. (Anna, Finland)

I think networking and community building has been my way of coping with change… Of course, pandemic was different, and you needed the virtual way of doing it… it’s something that comes naturally for me like when whatever the situation is. … So, you kind of reach out to others and that’s your way. (Maria, United States)

At one point, I set up a second group called Accidentally Bumping Group. That was set up when we were only allowed to leave our homes to exercise alone. So I asked if anybody wanted to accidentally bump into me at certain times and places. No breaking rules but just bumping into people while outside. (Joyce, Canada)

Demonstrating curiosity and gratitude. All interviewees acknowledged the challenges posed by the pandemic; however, their positive outlook—both toward life in general and change in particular—probably enhanced their resilience to its negative effects. This mindset allowed them to perceive potential benefits in these unprecedented circumstances. Driven by curiosity and gratitude, the positive deviants viewed difficult times as opportunities for learning and personal growth, as well as for strengthening social relationships and advancing their professional lives. Some interviewees expressed explicitly that they emerged from the pandemic feeling stronger. 

We learned a lot about the fauna and the flora in the nearby National Park and other Conservation Areas.  We learned about the benefits of spending time in the forest and being with nature.   It truly was an enjoyable learning experience for everybody. … I saw a beautiful Barred owl. And.. we were on our hikes and we met this photographer in the woods. He took us down a path and showed us two Horned owls sitting in a tree. An it was like, oh my gosh, it just made it all worthwhile. (Joyce, Canada)

I realized a lot of things about myself at that time – what I really need and want and how much I love freedom. How much I like to go at my own place- and how much I distained my work – it was too much for me. … I know I have deep and hidden strengths that will emerge during time of need. I´m lucky. (Avi, Canada)

I think it also made our core group of friends much closer at that time. I think we bonded in a different way. Because of that, … the friendship got more… deeper. We have to find alternative ways how to keep those friendships going… I think actually we kept more in contact during COVID than we did before and it was more meaningful and… we started really vocalizing how we appreciated each other and having each other in our lives. And how we help each other and lift each other up. (Sophia, United States)

I feared the pandemic would isolate me, but that didn’t happen.  We found new ways to socialize and we stayed fit doing it.  It was fun! (Joyce, Canada).

I found that is a strength in me, but I can also leverage to other areas of life, also after pandemic. (Maria, United States)

                                               Discussion

This positive deviance study identified a subset of eight resilient individuals from four countries who demonstrated exceptional coping abilities in regulating their stress during the pandemic. All these positive deviants had experienced objective high pandemic-related stress that mainly stemmed from three factors: how the pandemic restricted their daily activities, caused job loss/financial uncertainty, and negatively affected their health or the health of their loved ones.  Social isolation was not a primary source of stress for most positive deviants, even those who lived alone, as they found alternative ways to maintain social connections. Avi formed a social bubble with other residents in her apartment building, while Sophia maintained regular contact with her group of friends through online interactions, mask-wearing, and social distancing. However, Joyce, whose main source of stress was social isolation, was the oldest of the positive deviants (age 70) and had no family members living nearby. She found creative ways to cope with this as well.

The results of this Phase II study substantiate the hypothesis proposed in our previous research (Adegoke et al., 2022) that an expansive coping repertoire facilitates superior management of disaster-related stressors. Specifically, the positive deviants utilized a diverse range of five to eleven positive coping strategies to mitigate their distress. In addition, the high copers shared several attributes that contributed their wellbeing during the pandemic. Prior studies have shown that people who engage in multiple positive stress-coping strategies tend to be healthier and more resilient during disasters or stressful life events (e.g., Heffer & Willoughby, 2017). Building upon the conceptual framework of coping flexibility (Bonanno & Burton, 2013), it is hypothesized that these resilient individuals possess a superior capacity for adaptive implementation; the capacity to align specific coping strategies with the idiosyncratic and fluctuating demands of a stressful environment. While the current study focused on broad dimensions of disaster-related resilience and posttraumatic growth, the specific mechanisms underlying this adaptive implementation warrant more granular investigation. As proposed by Bonanno et al. (2024), regulatory flexibility defined as the capacity to dynamically adapt strategies to meet shifting environmental demands, serves as a more direct and potent psychological mechanism for resilience than static, one-dimensional predictors.

All resilient individuals in this study sought social support to lower their stress and found spending time with others a helpful coping strategy during the pandemic. We now know from research on Polyvagal Theory, that social connection can be comforting and provide cues of safety to the nervous system (Porges, 2022). Physical exercise and time in nature were also found to be helpful. These findings align with other studies where social support, being in nature, exercising, and multiple lifestyle factors combined can support mental wellbeing and decrease pandemic-related stress (e.g., Hu et al., 2024, Finlay et al., 2020). In addition, many positive deviants in this study highlighted that helping others, fostering community connection, and maintaining a positive outlook were effective strategies for stress reduction. These ways of coping are explored in greater detail in the subsequent section, as they align closely with the findings from the thematic analysis.

Beyond identifying trigger events and categorizing coping strategies, this study aimed to explore, in greater depth, the ways through which positive deviants successfully managed and reduced their stress. Thus, we identified six key attributes of positive deviants related to enduring the adversity they faced during the pandemic times. These were Acting with purpose, Making a positive impact in the community, Balancing emotional and rational thinking, Reframing challenges, Maintaining a flexible attitude toward change, and Demonstrating curiosity and gratitude.

Firstly, the positive deviants overcame restrictions and mandates by finding ways to continue doing things they loved or considered integral for their wellbeing. They initiated projects they felt passionate about and focused on self-improvement as a means of adaptation. For these resilient individuals, staying active and engaging in purposeful activities was crucial. In addition, the positive deviants not only sought support from other, but also actively helped those around them, which they felt contributed to regulating their pandemic-related stress. The exceptional copers devised innovative ways to contribute to their community, launching projects that were benefitting people during and after the pandemic. According to Schnell and Krampe (2020), people who had a sense of meaning in their lives had more self-control and reported less mental distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Creating an impact upon your surroundings by engaging in community service restores an individuals’ sense of control. By helping others, individuals felt that they were helping themselves, too, engendering a sense of purpose. The literature shows that a sense of agency and social capital are pivotal in maintaining mental health (Moore, 2017).

One of the key attributes of the positive deviants was their capacity to balance rational and emotional thinking, demonstrating an exceptional capacity to regulate their emotions and thoughts without becoming overwhelmed. Furthermore, the positive deviants utilized reframing challenges as a coping strategy, often describing how they distanced themselves from the immediate moment to ‘see the big picture’ or viewed the pandemic as a temporary phase that would eventually pass. This ability to cultivate a witness mentality is indeed a mindfulness strategy. The resilient individuals tended to confront external stressors with problem-focused coping strategies using skills such as direct action and planning. At the same time, they did not avoid or deny the difficult emotions triggered by challenging situations. Instead, they adopted psychological coping strategies, such as reframing, to regulate their emotional states effectively. Research has shown that highly resilient individuals excel at emotional regulation. Resilience is fundamentally about emotional regulation, which is the capacity to modulate physiological arousal, recover from stress, and flexibly return to a state of safety and engagement with life (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004; Troy & Mauss 2023). Similarly, the exceptional copers in this study demonstrated good self-regulation skills, effectively managing their thoughts and emotions. This capacity likely played a crucial role in helping them cope with pandemic-related stress in a healthy and adaptive manner.

Another key attribute of the positive deviants, possibly linked to the self-regulation skills mentioned above, was their capacity to maintain a flexible attitude toward change, acknowledging that certain events, such as a global pandemic, were beyond their control. Rather than resisting these realities, they adopted a more adaptive approach by going with the flow, surrendering to that which they were unable to control and finding ways to navigate the ‘new normal’ actively generating creative solutions to preserve the activities they viewed as essential to their coping. Lastly, the positive deviants exhibited a positive mindset, characterized by curiosity and gratitude. They actively sought opportunities for self-growth and were able to identify potential benefits even in the unprecedented challenges they faced. Previous research has demonstrated that optimism and hopefulness about the future are associated with adaptive responses to the pandemic (Leslie-Miller et al., 2021).

In this study, exceptional coping emerged as a regulatory adaptation process in response to pandemic-related stress had both intra- and interpersonal dimensions, involving the self-regulation of thoughts, emotions, and actions, while also being embedded in social interactions. Together, these findings align with previous resilience research which defines psychological resilience not as an innate trait but as a multidimensional, dynamic, and context-dependent process of adaptation to stress and adversity (e.g., Denckla et al., 2020).

The capacity to positively grow despite adversity, another important dimension of resilience, was detected also in this study. According to Sisto et al. (2019), resilient coping enables individuals to reconstruct and rebuild their life path, re-establish balance by fostering change within themselves, and respond positively to difficulties, thereby transforming challenges into opportunities for growth. In other words, when facing adversity, individuals who engage in self-awareness and re-organization are able to adapt successfully, with self-growth functioning both as an outcome and as a driving force of this process. People gain a clearer sense of who they are and what motivates them, and they tend to grow from the adversity. Resilience and posttraumatic growth are related but distinct: resilience is more strongly associated with reduced pessimism and the capacity to recover, while posttraumatic growth is more closely tied to positive future expectations and meaning making. In other words, resilience is about bouncing back, whereas posttraumatic growth is about growing beyond one’s prior baseline after trauma (Taku & Efthemiou, 2025).

Multiple factors are linked to an individual´s level of resilience (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013). Biological, familial, cultural, and economical factors certainly play a role in rebounding from adversity. However, it seems that in this study, psychological factors were pivotal in the capacity to regulate pandemic-related stress. For several positive deviants, resilient coping in the context of pandemic-related stress was a result of a deliberate and effortful process. Many described having undergone an extended and challenging period of learning and self-discovery to achieve their level of coping. Thus, we consider resilience to be an adaptive and dynamic process that can be learned and acquired both at the individual or community levels (Chmitorz et al., 2018). Encouraging warm and safe social engagement, enhancing mindfulness skills, and developing resources that enhance internal self-awareness of physiological states should be considered pivotal tools to enhance resilience both for everyday wellbeing and during times of disaster.

                              Limitations and Further Research

Because of the small sample size of surveyed participants (N=289), we were not able to conduct meaningful analyses of the differences between high and low copers. The addition of this quantitative information would have permitted comparison with our positive deviance findings and perhaps lead to the development of additional hypotheses. The small survey sample size was due to the lack of efficacy of the snowball sampling method, as most survey respondents did not further disseminate the link for the survey to friends and/or family as we had hoped. Although we were able to interview 17 individuals across 4 countries, a larger proportion of survey respondents had consented to a follow-up interview and provided contact information. Attempts to contact all of the high copers from this list of survey respondents took place over 6 weeks, but many respondents did not respond to emails, texts, or phone calls from the research team. This was likely due to the timing of this study: the COVID-19 pandemic had been in varying stages of “over”, marked by country-wide mandates, restrictions, and “state of emergency” declarations being lifted, which caused many people to feel as though the COVID-19 pandemic was behind them and did not want to discuss it further at this point. Another limitation of the study was the small size of participants interviewed for each country. We recommend that positive deviance research be done with a larger sample size from different countries so that coping strategies unique to a particular country can be explored. Our sample of positive deviants was also mainly women, White, middle class, and highly educated. The coping strategies used by individuals from other ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and education levels deserve investigation.

This positive deviance study generated interesting hypotheses for further positive deviance research as well as quantitative research into disaster-related stress and how individuals and communities cope with this type of stress. For example, from our interviews with the positive deviants, we concluded that the use of multiple, adaptive coping strategies played a role in helping them cope effectively with their pandemic-related stress. However, a multivariate analysis to determine if the type of coping strategies used affect this relationship would provide insight into whether the type of coping strategy also plays a role, as opposed to solely the number of coping strategies. Testing such hypotheses in further studies is essential in understanding what modifies, mediates, or confounds the relationship observed between using multiple coping strategies and coping effectively well with disaster-related stress. In addition, the specific mechanisms underlying the adaptive implementation of different coping strategies warrant more granular investigation.

The need for research addressing how individuals and communities cope with disaster-related stress is increasing. Rates of natural disasters have increased over the past decade as global climate change accelerates, affecting more people than ever before in diverse and complex ways (Ebi et al., 2021). At the same time there is escalating political and social unrest in many countries which has created a time of unprecedented global instability. Recent evidence shows that body self-awareness and self-care practices can help build resilience (Nicholson et al., 2025). Applications of this for future research might teach people to use awareness of internal bodily sensations so that they can better understand their own nervous systems and help regulate their own emotional and cognitive wellbeing. This is a new direction in treating population-based disasters and can offer somatic pathways to improving psychological resilience. The present positive deviance study allowed us to identify how and why certain individuals adapt especially well to disaster-related stress, reflecting a robust capacity for resilience. Future positive deviance studies may identify additional resilience-supporting resources and mechanisms across individual, family, and community contexts, with implications for strengthening adaptive coping skills during periods of heightened stress.

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