Abstract:
A large survey of South Australian teachers (n=960) identified the most important resilience promoting factors within and between five nested systems ñ the community, school, peer group, family, and the individual. Results suggest that teachers hold complex and sometimes contradictory attributions about student resilience; many appear to have a 'self serving bias' which locates explanations of resilience within realms that teachers can influence (i.e. the school), and explanations of non-resilience within the individual and/or their dysfunctional families. The implications of these findings will be explored in relation to the development of school and community programs designed to foster resilient behaviour in children and adolescents.