Resilience Project

Due to limited options for secondary schooling in their remote home communities, over 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian students are supported by the Queensland Department of Education Transition Support Service (TSS) to relocate and access their schooling in a boarding environment. For students to maintain their well-being, these transitions require navigation of new systems, cultures, challenges and resources, and the capacity of schools to support these processes. In response to increased suicide risk identified in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth, the five-year (2015-2020) Resilience Study was developed by CQUniversity and TSS to measure and develop strategies for building and maintaining resilience for students during this transition.

To do so, the study is investigating the impact of a multicomponent resilience intervention to enhance boarding schools' and transition support for Indigenous students and their levels of psychosocial resilience. We are testing the hypothesis that students' resilience is not positively influenced by the multicomponent intervention. The Resilience Study project has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council from December 2014. In 2017, the Resilience Study research team were awarded a Queensland Department of Education ‘Education Horizons Grant' to enhance the Resilience Study research and support the remaining phases of the study.

The Resilience Study is based on an integrated mixed methods approach; each component iteratively informing the other. The primary research methods are quantitative: 1) assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention in changing the levels of students' resilience, educational outcomes and suicide risk, and 2) economic evaluation of the intervention. The secondary methods are qualitative and include a grounded theoretical model of the process of enhancing psychosocial resilience to protect against suicide for Indigenous boarding school students.

A tertiary focus of the study is capacity development, whereby more experienced researchers in the team will provide research mentorship to less experienced researchers through regular meetings, and Indigenous team members will provide cultural mentorship in research practices to non-Indigenous members.

For more information please contact ciher@cqu.edu.au.

Student Artwork - Strong and Deadly by Venus Watson

This etching artwork is designed by Miss Venus Watson, a Year 12 student with a hearing disability from Palm Island. This artwork represents the strengths that she had and that she believes students need to exist, live, survive, be engaged and be happy at boarding school, away from kin and country.

'Hello, my name is Venus Watson. I am also known as Venus Lawrence as this is the surname registered on my Birth Certificate. I come from Palm Island.

My artwork titled Strong and Deadly is scratch art and expresses resilience or the strengths I draw on to be strong and deadly at boarding school.

The Rainbow Serpent is my guardian spirit and creator with great powers and he is wrapped around the Aboriginal Flag which represents my pride and identity as a young Aboriginal woman. The footprints represent my life journey and on this journey, I carry with me my culture represented by the artefacts – boomerangs, totems – goanna, the flower and water symbols, all represent the importance of land and sea to me which comforts me and gives me hope for the future. Finally the connections I have with others and most importantly my family.

- Venus.'

Pilot Study

The Pilot Phase saw 94 students from three boarding schools and two remote community primary schools, along with re-engaging students from one remote community, participated in the Pilot Phase of the Resilience Study by completing student surveys, and the secondary students participated in student camps.

Pilot data found that most primary students reported high levels of resilience. A third of primary students reported normal - high levels of psychological well-being. Secondary students attending boarding school a reported reduction in resilience measures and psychosocial well-being.

The published paper Measuring resilience and risk factors for the psychosocial well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boarding school students: Pilot baseline study results offer more information about the background of the Resilience Study and the pilot survey data.

Phase One

In Phase One, 281 remote Cape York and Palm Island Indigenous students successfully completed the student survey. These students were from 18 boarding schools across Queensland, two remote community primary schools and re-engaging students from one remote community. STEP UP plans were developed by eight randomly-selected Phase One partner schools to promote the resilience of remote Indigenous students. Professional development sessions for schools and boarding facilities have been facilitated. Community meetings have also been held in five remote communities to feedback the Pilot Phase data to parents and community leaders.

Phase Two

The second phase of this study reports quantitative and qualitative data from students. An interrupted time series design is being applied to evaluate levels of change in students' resilience and well-being. Structured questionnaires were collaboratively developed, with questions adapted from the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28), and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K5). Surveys were completed by 240 students from 17 boarding schools, 2 primary schools and re-engaging students from one remote community. As well, yarning circles were held, with students asked to discuss the ways they have maintained their well-being, despite the challenges of transitions.

Academic Publications