The main question that leads the focus in this study is:
What is the contribution of the school environment to the resilience of middle-adolescent students?
Before going into the background and rationale of this study I will specify the terms used in this research question:
- Contribution: In this study I will use the dynamic term contribution instead of the term effect because I will not measure the causal influence in a statistical way but I will explore the relationship between school environment and middle-adolescents resilience in terms of dynamic, reciprocal interactions.
- School environment: With the term school environment I refer to all possible aspects of the immediate environment constituted by the school as a system in which the middle-adolescent is interactively participating. These aspects can include teachers as well as the school building as well as the lunch breaks and extramural activities. No framed description of this term will be postulated beforehand because the school environment will be studied from the viewpoint of the middle-adolescents. It is the middle-adolescents description of the term school environment that is the focus of this study.
- Resilience: Before constructing the term resilience in a detailed manner in Chapter Two I will use the term to denote the ability to bounce back after stressful experiences.
- Middle-adolescent: a 14-or 15-year old girl or boy. I will elaborate on the reason for the focus on this age group in paragraph 2.1.