Empowerment and Education: Individual Strengths and the Prediction of School Engagement among Indigenous Youth

• Main Author: Carlson, Elizabeth
• Other Authors: Lumley, Margaret
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Guelph 2016
• Subjects: strengths; student engagement; Indigenous; Aboriginal; Canadian; school; Canada; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10214/9988

This thesis is an investigation of Indigenous youths’ personal strengths in relation to their level of student engagement. Participants were 85 self-identified Indigenous (First Nation, Inuit, Métis, other) students aged 8-14 (M = 10.54). A great number of personal strengths were endorsed overall, with some gender differences found. Analyses indicated that the strengths measure had strong overall internal consistency; however, reliability for individual strengths varied. A strong positive connection between personal strengths and student engagement was found for Indigenous youth, and strengths with family, at school, and from knowing oneself predicted higher levels of student engagement. While a strong connection between personal strengths and student engagement was found, further research is needed to understand whether this is an appropriate measure of strengths for use with Indigenous youth. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada