AUTHOR=McCalman Janya , Bainbridge Roxanne Gwendalyn , Redman-MacLaren Michelle , Russo Sandra , Rutherford Katrina , Tsey Komla , Ungar Michael , Wenitong Mark , Hunter Ernest 

TITLE=The Development of a Survey Instrument to Assess Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students’ Resilience and Risk for Self-Harm

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00019

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2017.00019

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=8	Background: Australian policies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing outline
9	the importance of local community-based interventions; for adolescents, school-based
10	programs are considered beneficial. However, there is a lack of localised data to determine
11	levels of resilience and risk, and thus whether programs are effective. This paper describes the
12	challenges and opportunities in collaboratively designing and piloting a localised survey
13	instrument to measure Indigenous students’ resilience and upstream risk factors for self-harm;
14	and the resultant instrument.

15	Methods: A participatory action research approach was used to engage education staff, health
16	care providers, students and researchers to design and pilot the survey instrument. A six-phased
17	process facilitated survey development: 1) defining the logic and exploring the evidence; 2)
18	understanding and tailoring for context; 3) testing for feasibility and relevance; 4) testing for
19	appropriateness and comprehension; 5) facilitating survey administration; and 6) refining the
20	instrument. Processes in each phase were recorded and transcribed with thematic analysis used
21	to identify key challenges and opportunities arising during development.

22	Results: Four key challenges and opportunities were identified: 1) the relevance of
23	international survey instruments for Indigenous Australian students; 2) accounting for distinct
24	environments; 3) the balance between assessing risk and protective factors; and 4) tailoring
25	for literacy levels and school engagement. The final Student Survey instrument comprised
26	four demographic, 44 resilience, nine risk and 35 service use and satisfaction questions. The T4S will
27	be administered routinely on annual student intake.
28
29	Discussion and conclusion: The six-phased participatory processes resulted in a tailored
30	instrument that could identify the critical resilience and upstream risk factors facing a cohort
31	of Indigenous students who attend boarding schools for secondary education. Challenges
32	were resolved collaboratively and the pilot results were directly translated to education
33	practice and its integration with health services. Our results suggest that both the phased
34	process of developing the T4S, and the instrument itself can be adapted for other Indigenous
35	adolescent wellbeing and/or self-harm prevention programs.