Build and enhance protective factors in at-risk populations through experimental and intervention studies to support resilient developmental trajectories¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (6 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The editors' forward-looking recommendation is that the field move from mapping strengths and weaknesses to testing how protective factors can be built or enhanced in at-risk learners. They write it is "crucial to start using this new knowledge to learn how protective factors can be built or enhanced in at-risk populations to create and support optimal learning environments". Supplementing risk-factor knowledge with protective-factor knowledge could, they argue, add new intervention and treatment options for educational professionals.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Sensitive designs and thorough application of statistical techniques that allow discerning between promotive, protective, and skill-enhancing effects

Constraints¶

• The editors state that experimental or intervention studies manipulating protective factors currently seem too advanced for a field still building a sufficient knowledge base

Target Learners¶

• At-risk learners in reading, writing, and mathematics, including learners with specific learning disabilities

Target Learning Goals¶

• Fostering resilient developmental trajectories in foundational academic skills

Affordances¶

• Promotive Protective Compensatory Effects Framework

Claims¶

• Formal math activities in the home environment mitigated the risk of parental math difficulties for children's math development (reported by the editors, citing Torppa et al.) [+W]
• In an at-risk preschool sample, 6% were identified as resilient, with maternal education a key protective factor and nonverbal intelligence, but not executive function, predicting resilience status (reported by the editors, citing Muñez et al.) [+W]
• Resilience should be conceptualized as a process rather than an outcome of development, with environmental factors playing an essential role alongside individual risk and resilience factors (Parrila's discussion, as reported by the editors) [+W]
• Semantic abilities act as the key protective factor against the negative effect of reading fluency impairments on reading comprehension, especially in low SES contexts (reported by the special issue editors, citing Lefèvre et al.) [+W]
• Trait resilience had a promotive role in academic performance for immigrant and non-immigrant students alike, and an additional protective effect mitigating the negative effect of school discrimination specifically among first- and second-generation immigrant students (reported by the editors, citing Huang et al.) [+W]
• Children with developmental language disorder and strong verbal reasoning could partly compensate delays in mathematics at the individual level, though group-level analyses revealed no protective effects (reported by the editors, citing Kleemans et al.) [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Plan and conduct resilience-in-literacy research using designs and analyses that distinguish promotive, protective, and skill-enhancing factors
• Submit intervention studies and replications to Educational Psychology Review's new intervention studies and replication categories
• Develop complementary LD interventions that strengthen promotive and protective factors alongside interventions remediating core weaknesses

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• van Viersen, S., Psyridou, M., & Torppa, M. (2026). General introduction to the special issue on resilience in learning. Learning and Instruction, 101, Article 102254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102254