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Conceptualizing students' academic hardiness dimensions: A qualitative

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Article  in  European Journal of Psychology of Education · September 2012

DOI: 10.1007/s10212-012-0141-6

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Eur J Psychol Educ (2013) 28:807–823
DOI 10.1007/s10212-012-0141-6

Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions:

a qualitative study

Spiridon Kamtsios & Evangelia Karagiannopoulou

Received: 19 December 2011 / Revised: 17 May 2012 / Accepted: 13 June 2012 /

Published online: 4 July 2012
# Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa, Portugal and Springer Science+Business Media BV 2012

Abstract Academic hardiness is a personality characteristic that may differentiate students

who avoid challenging academic course work from others who are willing to pursue these
types of challenges. Research findings have demonstrated the need to understand and
examine the construct in different life stages and cultural settings, and there are additional
aspects of the construct that have yet to be identified. The purpose of this study was to
explore the possible dimensions of academic hardiness and its components (commitment,
control, and challenge) using qualitative methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted
with 21 primary school children (aged 10–12 years old). They were asked to narrate and
reflect on their experience about school failure and low grade in a test in a school lesson. The
findings demonstrate that students differ as to the way they face the negative experience, as
results showed that a variety of factors were related with students’ academic hardiness. The
findings are discussed in relation to the recent literature.

Keywords Academic hardiness . Qualitative methodology

Introduction

There is widespread interest among researchers in the last three decades on psychological
stress and on stress experiences in the school setting. Children spend a lot of time in school,
and this arena can pose social and academic challenges (Murberg and Bru 2007). Unfortu-
nately, for many children, school—and all that it entails—is not a pleasant experience.
Indeed, for a great number of children, school is a major source of stress (Nelms 1999).
Children’s effective coping with daily stressors can mediate the impact of major life
events and is associated with positive behavioral and emotional adjustment (Pincus and

S. Kamtsios (*) : E. Karagiannopoulou

Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, Section Psychology, University of Ioannina, Arx.
Makariou 37, 45221 Ioannina, Greece
e-mail: spiroskam@gmail.com

K. Spiridon
e-mail: spiroskam@sch.gr
808 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

Friedman 2004). The thematic area of coping and stress management enforced in 1979
by Kobasa introduced the concept of hardiness. This personality characteristic, derived
from existential psychology, expresses a general quality of an individual to regard
stressful life events as amenable, and to consider changes as a normal and interesting
part of life (Kobasa et al. 1982).
Hardiness is a combination of attitudes that provides the courage and motivation to
do the hard, strategic work of turning stressful circumstances from potential disasters
into growth opportunities (Maddi 2006). Hardiness as such is a set of beliefs one
holds regarding the self and interactions with the world, emphasizing the importance
of involvement rather than isolation, control rather than powerlessness, and challenge
rather than threat. Research has shown that hardiness is one factor influencing
effective coping that leads to good health and enhanced performance (Maddi 2005).
Hardiness has been conceptualized as a combination of the three attitudes (3Cs) of
commitment, control, and challenge. If persons are strong in commitment, they
believe it is important to remain involved with the events and people around them,
no matter how stressful things become. It seems like a waste of time to withdraw into
alienation and isolation. If they are strong in control, they want to continue to have
an influence on the outcomes going on around them, no matter how difficult this
becomes. It seems like a mistake to let themselves slip into powerlessness and
passivity. If they are strong in challenge, they see stresses as a normal part of living
and an opportunity to learn, develop, and grow in wisdom (Maddi 2005, 2006). These
3Cs of hardy attitudes provide the courage and motivation to do the hard work of
turning stressful circumstances into growth opportunities (Maddi 2002). As such,
hardiness is a pathway to resilience under stress (Maddi 2006).
Many researchers have investigated hardiness, which was defined as a personality
characteristic (Westman 1990; Soderstrom et al. 2000; Beasley et al. 2003; Harris 2000).
Recently, the concept of hardiness has been related with the education and health area.
Benishek and Lopez (2001) have formulated the meaning of “Academic Hardiness”
(Benishek and Lopez 2001; Benishek et al. 2005) and Gebharst et al. (2001) the concept
of “Health Hardiness,” which aimed to determine relationships between hardiness, self-
reported health and preventive health behavior.
Benishek and Lopez (2001) concentrated their research efforts in better understand-
ing why some students choose a challenging academic course, adapting behaviors that
will help them to overcome difficult academic courses and modulate their emotional
reactions when they receive feedback, indicating that they are not performing at a
level that meets with their own personal standards. According to Benishek and Lopez
(2001), two cognitively oriented theories, Kobasa’s hardiness theory (1979) and
Dweck and Leggett (1988) theory of academic motivation, might be useful in under-
standing why some students persevere when faced with academic difficulties whereas
others do not.
Goal perspective theorists (Ames 1992; Dweck and Leggett 1988; Nickolls 1989) suggest
that in achievement domains like school, two different goals predominate that elicit quali-
tatively different motivational patterns. A task (Nickolls 1989) or learning (Dweck and
Leggett 1988) goal implies a major concern with personal development. Success is defined
as greater gains in personal competence, and perceptions of ability are self-referenced.
Youngsters are highly motivated without external rewards or threats because the most
important reward is the accomplishment itself. Thus, they try hard to learn new skills, they
see effort as the major prerequisite of success, and they are less likely to worry about failure
because mistakes are perceived as part of learning.
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 809

An ego (Nickolls 1989) or performance (Dweck and Leggett 1988) goal implies a major
concern with normative ability. Success means better performance than others, and per-
ceived ability is normatively referenced. Youngsters try to outperform others to achieve
success with low effort. They are extrinsically motivated because they conceive learning as a
means to achieve public recognition of their superiority.
Taking into account the two theories, the hardiness theory and the motivation
theory, Benishek and Lopez (2001) and Benishek et al. (2005) introduced the notion
of “Academic Hardiness,” providing a framework for understanding how students may
react to academic challenges. The behavioral manifestations of the three hardiness
attitudes can be extended to the school environment. Recently, Sheard and Golby
(2007) tried to identify hardiness components that would explain variation in the
academic performance in undergraduate students. Students who perceive themselves
as having the ability to achieve academic goals through effort and emotional self-
regulation (i.e., control), who are willing to make personal sacrifices to excel aca-
demically (i.e., commitment), and who purposefully seek out difficult course work
because doing so may result in long-term personal growth (i.e., challenge) may be
more likely to operate from a learning-based orientation rather than a performance-
based orientation (Benishek et al. 2005).
This conceptualisation guided to the development of Academic Hardiness Scale
(Benishek and Lopez 2001; Benishek et al. 2005), reflecting commitment, challenge, and
control. Academic hardiness scale has been used in researches with high school students and
undergraduates without however exploring the factorial validity of the scale. Karimi and
Venkatesan (2009) examined the relation of academic hardiness and mathematics perfor-
mance in high school students. Golightly (2007) identified academic hardiness as a predictor
of high school students’ self-efficacy, and Brousek (2008) reported that academic hardiness
3Cs are related with achievement goal orientations in school environment. According to
Kinder (2008), academic hardiness has a strong relation with first year undergraduates’
motivation, whereas Sheard and Goldy (2007) mentioned that high hardy undergraduates
have higher performance. Later on, research efforts using the Academic Hardiness Scale
(Golighty 2007; Kamtsios and Karagiannopoulou 2011) reported psychometric weak-
ness of the scale indicating a clear three-factor structure and acceptable reliability
coefficients, although low compared to the original study by Benishek et al. (2005).
These studies are in line with the suggestions of Benishek et al. (2005), who
mentioned that there are additional aspects of the construct that have yet to be
identified. These studies suggest further check of the psychometric characteristics of
the scale and the use of exploratory interviews for the development of relevant
questions to improve the reliability of the scale. Taking into account these studies
and the fact that little attention has been given in academic hardiness constructs in
late elementary school children, although the need to understand and examine the
construct of hardiness and academic hardiness in different life stages, on different
groups, and in different cultural settings has been increasingly recognized (Chan 2000;
Benishek et al. 2005; Green et al. 2007), and although hardiness construct seems
useful in assisting students in dealing with school-related stressors (Green et al. 2007),
a qualitative methodological approach (semi-structured interviews) would provide a
detailed experience of the person-student. Semi-structured interviews can specify and
give concrete content to general formulations (Gadamer 2004), relatively to academic
hardiness constructs.
To our knowledge, there are no studies that have used a qualitative methodological (semi-
structured interviews) approach in order to examine academic hardiness components,
810 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

through the student’s perspective. Since the majority of the studies in the area of hardiness
and academic hardiness have utilized a qualitative approach and since there are important
limitations with the Academic Hardiness Scale that need to be acknowledged (Benishek et
al. 2005; Kamtsios and Karagiannopoulou 2011), there is a potential gap in our knowledge
regarding concepts related with academic hardiness in education. As the school environment
is particularly complex, there may be other variables associated with students’ academic
hardiness and students’ commitment, control, and challenge. Therefore, there is a need to
develop a broader conceptualization of academic hardiness.
The aim of this study was to explore the possible relevant aspects of academic hardiness
and its components (commitment, control, and challenge), using qualitative methodology.
Clearly, such information could lead to a better understanding of the educational dynamics
of academic hardiness constructs in late elementary school children.

Method

Sample

Twenty-one primary school children (10 boys and 11 girls) aged 10–12 years old partici-
pated in the study, recruited from two urban primary schools from north-west Greece.
Parents of the interviewees received detailed participation consent forms, and signed parent
consent was requisite.

Data collection

The semi-structure interview format was chosen on the grounds that the research theme had
not been studied before. Interviews followed the phenomenographic interview technique.
They had the form of interpersonal contact in which the interview resembles a social
discourse in structure. The conversational style of interviewing was used to promote free
exploration which demanded reflection and also to facilitate ways of construing thoughts
and experiences reported by students. Phenomemographic interviewing techniques (Marton
and Booth 1997) were followed to bring the interviewer and the interviewee to work
together on the interviewee’s reflections on the issue of interest, to bring the interviewee
back to the focus of reflection and offer interpretations of the information reported earlier by
the interviewee. For this purpose, an interview guide was drawn up. Questions were
prepared in such a way as to allow an open (but focused) discussion.
The interviews were recorded and were conducted individually. The duration of the
interviews varied from 20 to 30 min, depending on student’s talkativeness and reflection.
The vignette technique was used in the interviews. The participants, in a dialogic relation
with the researcher, are asked to narrate and reflect on their experience of the phenomenon
under consideration (school failure and low grade in a test in a school lesson1).

Data analysis

The interviews were transcribed in full and then analyzed. What emerged from the analysis
were descriptive categories (Marton 1994). The analysis looks specifically at students’

1
Students were free to choose the school lesson they had the experience of a low grade and to talk about it.
Some students’ choice was mathematics, whereas some other students’ choice was the language lesson.
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 811

perceptions and experiences concerning the way they cope with a school failure. The main
purpose of the analysis was to allow the experience of the interviewee to come out (Gadamer
2004). The analysis followed the following steps suggested by Cooper and McIntyre (1993) and
Miles and Huberman (1994). This involves a seven-stage form of recursive comparative
analysis which ensures that the conclusions drawn are reflective of the participants’ thoughts
as expressed in the interviews (Karagiannopoulou and Hallam 2003). The process involves: (1)
Reading a random sample of transcripts, (2) identifying points of similarity and differences
among these transcripts in relation to our research questions, (3) generating “theories” describ-
ing emergent answers to research questions, (4) testing theories against a new set of transcripts,
(5) testing new theories against transcripts already dealt with, (6) carrying all existing theories
forward to new transcripts, and (7) repeating the above processes until all data have been
examined and all theories tested against all data (Karagiannopoulou and Hallam 2003).
The codes derived were used as organizing devices that allowed the researcher to find and
then collect together all instances of a particular kind. The codes were successively elabo-
rated until they took the form of themes. Accuracy of the meaning which supported the
validity of the descriptive categories was established during or after the completion of the
interviews. It followed Francis (1981) and Marton’s suggestion (1994) about the process of
interviewing. Interviews were carried out in the form of a dialogue in order for the
interviewer to achieve the conceptualisation required to understand the information provided
by the interviewee. The emerging meaning seen by the interviewer was reflected back to the
students who concurred or qualified the meaning.

Findings

Analysis of the data was designed to identify categories of description relating to the
experience of a school failure. Data analysis resulted in three higher-order “themes”—
commitment, control, and challenge. These are illustrated in Fig. 1.

Future progress Application of Not taking part in

in school knowledge in extra-curriculum Control as Control as
Seek for help Control as
longer term in life activities an attempt a resulting
Students’ a resulting
detachment from the to avoid from the from the
stressor and negative/un consequenc causes of
Importance of focalization in their pleasant es due to failure
attendance extra- effort feelings the school
Continuation of Pupils’ adoption of learning curriculum activities failure
effort in relation to strategies that contributes in
future their learning
Control of the
Control through situation and the Control as a resulting
activities that offer emotional from re-thinking and
Task/learning orientation emotional calm experience awareness
commitment

Control

Emotional support that Failure as an

contributes to students’ opportunity for
commitment Commitment Academic school improvement
Hardiness

Ego orientation Challenge

commitment The difficulty in
learning process
leads to more effort

Continuing effort aiming
at the high grades
compared with the other
schoolmates
Continuing effort aiming at Acceptable school
the high grades with regard performance which
to acceptance by the others satisfy students’ personal
expectations
Students’ effort aiming at
satisfactory school performance with The failure was
regard to the avoidance of likely to happen in
negative/unpleasant emotions the context of
school life

High grades as an offer

in their parents and
teachers

Fig. 1 Dimensions of academic hardiness: lower- and higher-order themes

812 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

Commitment

Task or learning orientation commitment

From the interviews, it was found that the students who reported learning orientation were
focused on their reports on the importance of their efforts in their practical application of all
that they learn in their life and in their future progress in the school environment. They
reported specific efforts with regard to the realization of their learning goals as their
abstention from extracurriculum activities and seek for help for cognitive subjects and
difficulties of comprehension.

Continuation of effort in relation to the future

Six boys and two girls reported that after the failure in a school lesson (mathematics), they
should continue trying and exert more effort with regard to their future progress in school.
S8: “I should become good at the mathematics now…mathematics is the lesson that
will help me… in the high school and in the senior high school, if you do not know
mathematics you cannot come through with some difficulties in school…”
The pupils were focused on the importance of good knowledge and comprehension of the
content of mathematics for the next school levels. The majority of the pupils were focused in
the particular application of knowledge in the particular lesson (mathematics) in the longer
term in life.
S19: “Mathematics will continue interesting him because anybody can use mathemat-
ics in his life…almost for each day in his daily life…”
According to the students’ opinion, mathematics is a lesson that will help them in their
future daily life. They reported that the mathematics concern the wider world around them
and their daily life.

Pupils’ adoption of learning strategies that contributes to their learning

Nine boys and seven girls reported that they should study more in order to conquer the
knowledge, as their failure in the test showed that they do not possess (the knowledge).
Pupils propose and describe particular learning strategies that will help them in this effort
(organization of study and systematic reading, more attention during school time, search of
various informative sources, and maintenance of their optimism that they will accomplish
their goals).
S19: “…he should continue his effort, he should pay attention during the lesson… he
should study more and search for more information from other books, he should watch
educational TV programmes….he should take information from the computer, from
other books, from encyclopedias…he should read every day doing repetitions almost
every day and especially during the weekend…”
Pupils reported specific strategies that they were supposed to adopt in order to achieve in
the school setting. More concretely, some students (boys and girls) were focused on the
importance of not taking part in extracurriculum activities (e.g., games with friends). They
can turn in advantage these hours for more studying in order to improve their knowledge and
their skills.
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 813

S19: “I believe that if his classmates said John that should go to play with them in a
playground near to school, John would not go with them…after he received the bad grades
he should go straight to his home…he should think of this…he should take more informa-
tions and he should try more…If it happens to me I would return back to my home…to do
my homework and afterwards I would try to search informations for the lesson.”
Pupils placed priority in the study of the lesson despite their participation in extra-
curriculum activities (games with friends) so that they can comprehend it and study better.
Many of the pupils reported that they would seek for help. They believe that seeking help is
a factor that contributes to their learning. They reported that they would ask their parents,
their teachers, or their friends for help in order to understand better the part of the lesson that
seems to be difficult for them.
S4: “John would expect from his parents that they help him to understand better the
lesson…afterwards he could try alone…if I was John I would expect from my parents
to help me…to explain to me better… John would also speak to his teacher….to
explain to him some issues from the daily lesson…teacher will help him…if he had
however brother or sister he would also say to them to help him with the lesson…”
Almost the majority of the students would seek help from their parents. Seeking help
concerned their effort to face the difficulties of comprehension.

Ego orientation commitment

The students (boys and girls) attributed their success based on their best performance. With
their high performance, they aimed to satisfy their personal expectations as well as their
parents’ and teachers’ expectations. They reported their level of ability in comparison with
their schoolmates’ level of ability. Their choice was to continue their effort so as to avoid the
experience of negative feelings that accompany the low grade.

Continuing effort aiming at high grades compared with the other schoolmates

Some of the students (two boys and four girls) reported that they will continue trying in order
to take good grades. They want to prove to their friends and schoolmates that they can
succeed and they can precede them, even if the lessons are difficult. There were no differ-
ences in the content of the reports for both genders.
S9: “…he says…why I couldn’t succeed and the other children could?…Why do they
always have better grades than me? I need to try more and I will do it…next time I will
have a better grade in the test…in order to prove to the others that I am a good
students…i have to succeed…I want to have a big grade as my other schoolmates…”

The students compared their ability and school performance with their schoolmates’
ability. They reported that they should study more in order to achieve a higher performance
and a higher grade, bigger than the grades of their schoolmates.

Continuing effort aiming at the high grades with regard to acceptance

by others (schoolmates, parents, and teachers)

The majority of the students (13 students) reported that they would continue trying so that they
acquire social acceptance in the school environment. The acceptance by the schoolmates was
814 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

related to the good grades and the high performance. They mentioned that they would exert
more effort so that they achieve good grades. In that way, they would avoid their schoolmates’
deception due to a possible failure.
S15: “He concerns about the good grade in school… he wants to compete with his
schoolmates… he always wants to be the first…to be better than the others…he does
not like to make fun with him because of his low grades… his schoolmates will make
fun at him and they will say…you are not a good student so we cannot be friends with
you… you do not know nothing…this is the biggest fear in the school…not to have
good grades….”
Students’ reports for their effort in order to achieve high school performance and good
grades were connected to their fear for possible mockery by their schoolmates. The central
point of the reports was the acceptance from their friends. Students appear to worry for their
low performance (low grades) and for the negative effect of their failure in their social
relationships in the school environment. However, five boys and six girls reported ego-
oriented goals (high grades) as an “offer” to their parents and teachers with regard to their
acceptance by them.
S19: “…he will study more…because he wants to satisfy his parents….yes that is…he
should try to take a better grade in order to satisfy all them…parents and teachers….”
Students reported that they should try more to improve their school performance and to
outperform others. In that way, they think that they will satisfy their parents and their
teachers, proving to them their capability.

Acceptable school performance which satisfies students’ personal expectations

The majority of the students (eight boys and eight girls) reported that they would continue
trying with their lessons for personal educational goals without connecting their effort for
school achievement in the context of social comparison with their schoolmates. Their effort
is paying out so that they will feel satisfied for themselves and for the effort that they exert,
aiming for the highest performance (high grades) in school.
S12: “…he did not like this bad grade…he decided to study more…I do not think that
interests him to be better than the others…a good grade would interest him….with the
good grade he would accomplish his personal goals…good grade would encourage
him, he will continue his effort and he could be better in the lesson…”
Students were focused in their school performance. This was mentioned as a personal
goal that is achieved with more studying.
Students’ effort aiming at satisfactory school performance with regard to the avoidance of
negative/unpleasant emotions in a possible future school failure
Seven boys and six girls were aware of the emotions they will experience after their
school failure. They reported that next time they had to study, they would exert more effort
so as to avoid the negative/unpleasant emotions which usually accompany the low grades.

S6: “When I will study again this lesson it will come back to my mind (the previous
experience of the school failure)…because it was something very ugly and I was
ashamed for this…I felt very bad…I think that if I do not study more it would be
happen again…I will remember what was happened to me…and after that I will
supposed to study more….”
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 815

Students’ awareness for their negative/unpleasant emotions was connected with their
decision to study more.

Emotional support that contributes to students’ commitment

Seeking emotional support, which was focused on students’ emotion, concerned mainly their
tendency to be addressed by their parents, their teachers, or even their friends seeking
encouragement and support as well as confirmation and positive confrontation. In that
way, they could keep their negative feelings under control. As a result, they will be able
to study more and improve in the long run their school performance.
Approximately half of the students (five boys and six girls) reported that they sought
encouragement and confirmation from their parents. Some of the students (nine students)
were waiting for positive confrontation and encouragement from their school teacher,
whereas some of them (six students) reported that they would seek encouragement and
support from some friends.
S12: “I would say what was happened to my mother… she would encourage me
more…I will speak to my parents…we can say everything in our parents we can
express our feelings to them… parents could help us more in order to convince our
problem…I would also wait that the teacher would understand me….he would
understand precisely my feelings because of the school failure… Friends can help
us also…they would say to us…you must not be disappointed…you can succeed in
the future…you have to try more…friends could support us…”
Central place in the students’ reports is the support that they expect. They wish that this
support would be expressed with affection and acceptance. Parents also play an important
role in the network of “significant and important persons” from which students wait for
support. Students focused mainly in the forms of behavior that characterize their interaction
with their parents.

Control

Students reported on their effort to manage the particular stressor (low grade in a test). They
were able to recognize the causes of their failure, and they were conscious about its
consequences. Also, they reported on their effort to decrease the negative feelings that they
have experienced via further study. Few students mentioned that the event did not affect
them, and that they would try to cope with it calmly. Many students considered that it would
be difficult for them to control the situation as it created confusion to them. For this reason,
their effort to cope with this situation was difficult.
The subcategories that were demonstrated with regard to the “control” are the following:

1. Control as resulting from rethinking and awareness

& The causes of failure
& The consequences due to the school failure
& The negative/unpleasant feelings
2. Control through activities that offer emotional calm
3. Control of the situation and the emotional experience
816 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

Control as resulting from rethinking and awareness

Control as a result from the causes of failure (low grades in the test)

Nineteen students (8 boys and 11 girls) could recognize the main causes of their failure.
They could also report the reasons that caused what had happened to them. Both boys and
girls reported that they owe their failure to inadequate school preparation. They had not
studied hard as they should.
S8: “John had a bad grade in the lesson because…he did not study at home as long as
he should…if he studies more and was attentive his studies in school he would not
make error….”
Students underline that the bad/low school performance was connected with their opinion
that if they studied and tried more, they would not make errors.

Control as a result from the consequences due to the school failure

Ten students (six boys and four girls) reported that they were aware of the consequences due
to the school failure. They could describe them in detail. The consequences concerned the
way their schoolmates, parents, and teachers will face them.
S16: “I’m thinking about the consequences of the situation (due to the bad grade). …
how are they will behave at me… and what about my teacher and parents…maybe
they will scold me…and this is something very unpleasant…I should study more my
lessons, I have to pay more attention to them…I will do it…”.
Students’ awareness about the consequences due to the school failure was connected with
the description of particular actions and efforts to be made by them.

Control as an attempt to avoid negative/unpleasant feelings

Seven students (four boys and three girls) reported that they should try to get over the event
(bad grade) and the negative feelings that accompany it. They mentioned that they should
think that they can become better by studying more.
S14: “John felt bad…he did not expect this bad grade…it was something unpleasant
for him and he does not want such an experience again… but he should continue
trying…I would try not to be so much confused, to think more logically…ok, this was
happened, this was past…I will try more…”
Students were able to recognize the negative/unpleasant feelings they experienced. They
were focused in their direct effort so that they can improve themselves.

Control through activities that offer emotional calm

Eight students (three boys and five girls) reported that, after what happened at school (low
grade), they should find various ways which will calm them down. After their recovery from
the event, they should try again to achieve their personal goals in school.

S14: “…in order to change everything that happened and in order to feel better I
should calm down … I should try to forget it (the bad grade) in order to think better…
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 817

I should do something else…something that relaxes me….like the games with my

friends…with the games I will forget what happened…and afterwards I could
think….”
Activities and actions that students have reported made them feel pleasant and aimed
mainly at the reduction of the unpleasant/negative feeling. Students focused on their effort to
achieve emotional stability so as to help them keep busy with the school lessons. As a result,
they will improve their school performance and their grades.
However, some of the students (two boys and three girls) were focused on the
importance of attendance of extracurriculum activities, mainly sports activities with
their friends. They reported that their participation in a team game with friends will
help them defuse, forget what happened, relieve them of the event (the bad grade),
and calm down.
S18: “…I would go to play team games with my friends… I would play and
forgot the failure… playing with friends is something that make me glad…
afterwards I would be more calm…so I would be able to think more clearly
what happened and what should I do…”
According to the information reported by the students, playing team games with their
friends is a way to reduce the intensity that has been created because of the low grade.
Playing games with their friends will help them face more easily and effectively the whole
situation, by trying and studying more.

Control of the situation and the emotional experience

Students’ detachment from the stressor (the low grade) and focalization in their effort to face
the situation

Few students (two boys and two girls) reported that they would try to keep themselves
composed and think what they should do in order to confront the situation. They reported
self-confidence and their intention to reverse the situation, and they focused mainly on the
pursuit and attribution of causes as well as on the investigation of strategies in order to
confront the situation.
S21: “As long as I took the low grade I would try not to be confused…to be
calm…Ok, this is my grade in this test…I should think about it calmly … I will
improve it in the next test… I believe that a good student would not be
disappointed so much….”
The students were focused more on the importance of staying calm so that they can
confront more effectively the situation that has been created. However, six boys and five
girls reported that, after they took the low grade, they were influenced so much by this
experience; they felt immersed due to this experience. They mentioned that they could not
think of anything else.
S17: “I was very confused…I could not think anything…it was very difficult for me to
comprehend what was happening…I thought that I would try to “write” a better
grade…but this was not easy for me…i did not know what I should do…”.

Students declared that they were immersed due to the situation, and it was difficult for
them to cope with what happened to them.
818 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

Challenge

Interview analysis demonstrates that few students meet the school failure as an opportunity
to improve their school performance and their grades. Some of them preferred the lessons
that they considered easier so as to take a higher grade without hard work. Somebody
reported his/her intention to try more as he/she considered that the event (low grade) was
very likely to happen in the context of school life. Few were the students that accepted the
difficulties, which related with their learning, as a way for the achievement of their personal
goals.
The subcategories that were demonstrated with regard to the “challenge” are the
following:
& Failure as an opportunity for school improvement.
& The difficulty in learning process leads to more effort.
& The failure was likely to happen in the context of school life.

Failure as an opportunity for school improvement

Three boys and two girls reported that what happened (failure and low grade) may be the
“vaulting horse” for possession of effort and future school improvement. Two boys who
attributed their failure to “bad luck” and in the “bad moment” demonstrated that they were
not insufficient. Girls attributed the reason for their failure on their personal weakness which
they could overcome.
S13: “He was angry with himself because he had the good grade, as a personal goal…
but he did not achieve it…for this reason he would try more… he had not study well
enough for the test…he should make a new beginning with the lessons…it is the only
way for him to be a better students…”.
S14: “…he should not abandon his efforts in this lesson…if he really wanted to be a
good student in this lesson he should not say…I give up with my attempts, I am not
interest for this lesson…he should think that it was a bad moment in his school life and
that he will try more in the future…”.
The failure was considered by both boys and girls as a beginning of a new effort so that
they will improve at this lesson in the future.

The difficulty in the learning process leads to more effort

In total, five students (four boys and one girl) consider that they should continue to work on
mathematics/language despite the fact that mathematics/language is a difficult school lesson.
It is the only way to achieve better grades. Both boys and girls were focused more on the
continuation of their effort because of their interest in this lesson even if mathematics/
language is a difficult school lesson.

S9: “I would never say that I will abandon my effort in mathematics because it is a
difficult lesson…yes mathematics is a difficult lesson…but mathematics will continue
interesting me…I should try more…”1

Students appeared to know the difficulty of the particular lesson. This difficulty does not
constitute as a suspense factor for the continuation of their effort.
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 819

Five of the students (three boys and two girls) however reported that they preferred to
study lessons that are easy and lessons in which they can easily achieve high grades.
S10: “I prefer the lessons that are easy and lessons which does not want so much
studying…I can achieve more easily a good grade in these lessons…every child
prefers the lessons that are easy…yes…we can easy take ‘excellent’ or (10) in these
lessons”.
In the entirety of the interviews, students, despite their gender, prefer the lesson in which
they can achieve a high grade without exerting a lot of effort.

The failure was likely to happen in the context of school life

Six of the students (four boys and two girls) considered that low grade and failure in a school
test are something that can happen in every student. Failure in a test is a part of a daily school
life which they can overcome.
S19: “…this can happen in everyone…it is a bad moment…a lot of children have take
a low grade in a school test…he should try more…if he tries he will do it…he will
have a better grade in the next test…”
Failure in a test seems to constitute a fact that can happen in the school and appears to
function as a motivation to exert more effort.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to collect information about the factors associated with
academic hardiness dimensions using qualitative methodology. Analysis of data was
designed to identify categories of description relating to the experience of failure (low
grade) in a school lesson. The sample of the students that participated in the interviews
(n021) provided the essential information with regard to the way they coped with the
negative experience (low grade in a test) in the school environment. Data analysis demon-
strates that students differ as to the way they face a negative experience (stressor), as results
showed that a variety of factors were related with students’ academic hardiness.
Data that emanated from the interviews initially were categorized into three categories
(i.e., commitment, control, and challenge) according to the approach of Kobasa (1979) on
the hardiness theory. In a second level of categorization, specific characteristics that are
reported separately in each of the initial three categories were proposed.
Generally, data analysis demonstrates that the negative experience (failure in a school
lesson and low grade in a test), as a subjective experience, influences students’ behavior and
also their choice for the adoption of specific efforts with regard to the achievement of their
learning goals. According to the results of the study, students’ behavior and efforts, which
are directed to a personal goal, are modified and adjusted in a way that they could achieve
their final learning goal and the desirable result (i.e., students’ detachment from the stressor
and focalization in their effort so as to face the situation). Students’ adjusting activities are
applied to various ways: the use of strategies (i.e., seek for help), the modification of the
intensity of the stressor (i.e., control through activities that offer emotional calm), the
acceptance of the existing situation (i.e., the failure was likely to happen in the context of
school life), students’ choice of particular activities to be made (i.e., students’ adoption of
learning strategies that contribute to their learning).
820 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

The study indicates that students’ behavior and effort seem to constitute as a result of self-
conscious and voluntary guidance of their behavior as students’ awareness for the particular
experience is distinguished. The results of the study illustrate that students appear to be
aware and to selectively apply their actions and efforts in a way that is required in order to
correct their previous behavior and experience (i.e., students’ adoption of learning strategies
that contributes to their learning; control as an attempt to avoid negative/unpleasant feel-
ings). Students’ awareness of their efforts and emotions constitutes a presupposition for the
secondary appraisal of the situation. Secondary appraisal can lead to a more analytic
representation of the eliciting circumstance as it crucially allows emotional responses to
be inhibited (Lambie and Marcel 2002) (i.e., students’ detachment from the stressor and
focalization in their effort to face the situation; attempt to avoid negative/unpleasant feel-
ings). Such inhibition is necessary for a truly rational action selection (Lambie 2007) (i.e.,
seek for help; adoption of learning strategies that contribute to children’s learning).
More specifically with regard to commitment, two different types of commitment have
been explored in the study: ego- and task-oriented commitment. The students’ account of
commitment fit well with Pintrich’s (2000, 2003) perspective and theoretical model for
achievement motivation. The author points out types of elements in the learning process
such as motivational elements (achievement goal orientation, expectancies for success and
failure, and emotional reactions), cognitive elements (learning strategies and activation of
prior knowledge), and learning context elements (students’ perceptions and type of inter-
actions between students and teachers). In the present study, the kinds of experiences which
particularly supported these findings by Pintrich (2000, 2003) were described by the
students. Students are distinguished by their commitment to continue their effort for both
mastery and performance goals. Their subjective experience seems to influence their behav-
ior after the school failure (low grade in the test). They use cognitive strategies that will
promote and reinforce their learning, they aim for the success of long-term goals, and they
are seeking help from individuals, which can support their effort (so much via particular
help, as well as emotional support and encouragement). Good grades appear to constitute as
a motivation for students, and they strengthen their commitment for the continuation of their
effort.
The study also indicates that students aim at the high grades for social reasons, as their
need for friends’ acquisition, their acceptance from their schoolmates, and their acclamation
from parents and school teachers. They continue their effort as school grades influence their
emotional status. Their emotion awareness refers to an attentional process (Rieffe et al.
2008) for the importance that this experience has in themselves. They can value their
emotions (due to the school failure) as a positive or a negative part of themselves. Depending
on the emotions they have experienced (pleasure or shame), they can evaluate their knowl-
edge and their school performance. The study confirms that the subjective experience and
the emotions that accompany this experience (if emotional experience is something to be
ashamed of) could influence students’ direction and intensity of behavior (Rieffe et al. 2008;
Lambie 2007), that is their commitment and effort for achievement.
With regard to the control attitude, the results of the study point out the dimensions of
academic hardiness that are reported by the students and categorized in control component.
These dimensions referred to the application by the students of specific approaches and
processes, which are related with the choice, organization, and implementation of cognitive
and emotional procedures. This sequence of thoughts and approaches entails that students
have conscience and are aware of the reason for which they experience the situation (low
grade). In particular, the results show that students recognize, form, control, and modify their
experience according to their cognitive function and their personal perception of the
Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions 821

situation. Students’ control increases the probability for them to face the experience as a
result of their action mainly and not as an event that they did not expect or as something
excessive. Students can recognize and appraise both the causes and the consequences of
their failure. They can also acknowledge the unpleasant/negative feelings that they experi-
enced because of the low grade.
Students’ ability to recognize and appraise the situation can lead them to cope better with
the school failure. This ability can lead the students to cope better with the situation via
analytic representation of the situation that has been created because of the failure and
because of the psychological and emotional consequences that result (e.g., shame and
sorrow). The results of the study reveal that the conscious choice of activities that offer to
them emotional calm appears to be one way of effective coping. These activities can remove
them from the unpleasant/negative thoughts, and they can help them to cope effectively with
the situation (low grade).
According to the results of the study, these activities strengthen students’ positive
emotions, decrease negative effect, and increase the probability of students’ detachment
from the experience (the failure and the low grade). Students’ detachment is a sense of
“observing” the object of attention (Lambie 2007) using cognitive strategies. In that way,
they can focus in their effort in order to face the situation (i.e., students’ detachment from the
stressor and focalization in their effort so as to face the situation). In contrast, when they do
not cope with their negative emotions (due to the school failure), they feel immersed, that is,
students are totally engrossed in their experience or they “live” the experience (Lambie
2007). In such a case, the results of the study point out that students believe that they cannot
do something with their problem.
With regard to the “challenge” attitude, the results of the study are basically in line with
hardiness theory as proposed by Kobasa (1979) and other researchers later (Maddi 2005,
2006). The present study implies that challenge concerns students’ belief and appraisal of a
particular stressor as an opportunity and motivation for learning, instead of thinking of it as
something threatening. In particular, students mentioned that they could transform and
modify the negative experience (low grade). Negative experience can act as a motivation
and as an opportunity for school improvement. Students also reported that they can exert
more effort when they believe that school failure is an essential part of the learning process.
In such a way, students can be taught by their errors, and they can develop learning strategies
in order to confront future school and learning demands.
It should be kept in mind that the present study focuses on the possible relevant aspects of
academic hardiness and its components, using qualitative methodology. The findings bring into
question additional aspects of academic hardiness in primary school children (10–12 years) that
have not been identified in the past. Some of the dimensions of academic hardiness may be
particularly significant for students’ ability to cope with the difficulties in the school environ-
ment. Also, academic hardiness elements may be more or less relevant, or they may even play
different roles throughout the learning process. However, as the present study was based on a
small opportunity sample, and was of an exploratory nature, it is important not to claim much
generality for the categories established from this particular set of interviews. Nevertheless,
links to findings may enable us to raise issues for further research.
Taking the findings from the present study in the context of the wider literature, it seems
that an important task for future research in this area would be to investigate each of
academic hardiness dimensions using quantitative methodology. The continuation of the
research with such a way will illuminate the character of academic hardiness qualities, the
way in which they are interrelated, and the dynamics of their utilization, which may
contribute to children’s’ coping skills and learning process.
822 S. Kamtsios, E. Karagiannopoulou

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Kamtsios Spiridon MSc, PhD cand. is a physical education teacher of primary school children in Greece.
His main research interests concern (a) educational psychology: hardiness and its dimensions in school
settings, stress interventions, coping, and school psychology and (b) physical education: attitudes towards
exercise, obesity, and exercise.

Evangelia Karagiannopoulou. is an educational psychologist, assistant professor in Department of Philos-

ophy, Education and Psychology, Section: Psychology, University of Ioannina, Greece. Her main research
interests concern learning in higher education, stress, and coping.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Kamtsios, S., & Karagianopoulou, E. (2012) Exploring the psychometric properties of the “German Ques-
tionnaire Measuring Stress and Coping in Children and Adolescents,” in a Greek sample. European
Journal of Psychological Assessment (submitted).
Karagianopoulou, E. & Kamtsios, S. (2011). Stages of change, self-efficacy and stress management percep-
tions in undergraduate students. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 1(1), 1–9.
Karagiannopoulou, E. & Christodoulides, P. (2005). The impact of Greek University students’ perceptions of
their learning environment on approaches to studying and academic outcomes. International Journal of
Educational Research, 43(6), 329–350.
Karagiannopoulou, E. (2006). The experience of revising for essay type examinations: differences between
first and fourth year students. Higher Education, 51, 329–350.
Karagiannopoulou, E. (2011). Revisiting learning and teaching in higher education. A psychodynamic
perspective. Psychodynamic Practice, 17(1), 5.

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