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Against The Odds: Resiliency And The Fostering Of Future Academic Success Among At-Risk Children In Georgia, Bentley D. Ponder

Sociology Dissertations

Research continues to substantiate the influence of social, economic and family characteristics on students’ scholastic achievements. For example, children who are born in economically disadvantaged circumstances are more likely to score lower on tests that measure academic abilities than their same age economically advantaged peers (Brooks-Gunn and Markman, 2005; Rothstein, 2004). This dissertation examines the relationship between parenting interactions and young children's school readiness and initial academic success for a low-income, at-risk population in Georgia. The inter-disciplinary concept resiliency, defined as a process that encompasses positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity, frames the research (Arnold and Doctoroff, 2003; …