In research on educational equity, students from socioeconomically disadvantaged homes are typically depicted as low-performers and more likely to fail in school (Sirin, 2005). There are, however, students who, despite their disadvantaged backgrounds, manage to succeed in school. This capacity to overcome adversities in education and still reach successful achievements is referred to as Academic Resilience (Agasisti et al., 2018). Academic Resilience is built upon two critical conditions, namely, exposure to significant threats or severe adversity and achievement of positive adaptation despite major assaults on the developmental process (Kiswarday, 2012). Resilience is often captured by identifying protective and risk factors that predict the likelihood of achieving resilient outcomes. Risk factors are characteristics which heighten the risk of adverse outcomes, while protective factors are characteristics that function as a buffer against negative impacts and are associated with positive adaptation and outcomes (Masten, 2014). Resilient students are often characterized by high self-confidence, perseverance, willingness and capacity to plan, and lower anxiety (Martin & Marsh, 2006, 2009; OECD, 2011), strong engagement in class and academic activities (Borman & Overman, 2004). Thorsen et. al., (2021) also found that resilient students display both more perseverance and consistency of interest over time. Hence, both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are important for academic resilience.

Research on the economics of human development also highlight the value of skill formation for success in adulthood, particularly for disadvantaged children. Societal investments in strengthening both cognitive and non-cognitive skills for disadvantaged children give significant economic returns both at individual and societal levels (e.g. Heckman, 2006). More recent studies have particularly highlighted non-cognitive skill formation as an crucial enabler. Non-cognitive skills are associated with promoting both economic and social mobility, economic productivity and well-being in adulthood (e.g. Kautz et al., 2015; Soto, 2019). A wealth of studies on the labour market aligns with this reasoning, identifying positive associations with both cognitive and non-cognitive skills and labour market outcomes. Johannesson (2017) found that cognitive abilities and non-cognitive skills (academic self-concept and perseverance) predicted the risk of being unemployed via school grades.  Further, personality, i.e. extraversion and conscientiousness, was demonstrated to lead to higher earnings (Fletcher, 2013). Edin et. al., (2022) found that one standard-deviation increase in cognitive skills is associated with a salary increase of 6.6 percent and an increase in non-cognitive skills is associated with a 7,9 percent salary increase after controlling for educational attainment.

Studies on academic resilience and skill formation are scarcer. Nevertheless, some studies have found that protective factors identified during childhood and youth such as self-control and ability to plan are predictive of a more successful transition into adulthood (see Burt & Paysnick, 2012 for a review). In a qualitative study following up on four resilient students a decade later Morales (2008) found that the students continued to perform at high educational levels. The participants adapted the protective factors identified at the start of the study (i.e. self-confidence and internal locus of control) and used them to meet new challenges.

Employing a resilience perspective, the present study aims to investigate the difference in salary development among individuals who have been identified as being academically resilient versus those who are not. We also want to explore if the salary development can be attributed to educational attainment (educational history) and work status as changing conditions, and cognitive and non-cognitive skills, such as, cognitive ability, perseverance and academic self-concept as time invariant prerequisites. 

Data were retrieved from the Evaluation through Follow-up database (ETF), a longitudinal project built on 10% randomly selected national representative samples of ten birth cohorts in Sweden (Härnqvist, 2000). The sampled students were followed up in grades 3, 6, and 9 of compulsory school (the Swedish school system consists of 9 years of compulsory education from age 7), and in upper secondary school (non-compulsory). Participants are about 9000 individuals born in 1972 from the ETF database. Of these, about 2000 individuals were identified as having low socioeconomic status (i.e., student’s parents only completed compulsory or vocational upper secondary education) and of these about 700 individuals were identified as being resilient (scoring above the country mean on the national standardized test). Academic self-concept (ASC) in grade 6 was measured by three items (e.g. how do you feel about doing maths, reading, writing) answers were given on a three-point scale ranging from difficult to easy. In upper secondary school ASC was measured using three items (e.g. do you experience any problems in math, reading, writing) answers were given on a 4-point scale from completely without problems to very big problems. Perseverance in grade 6 and upper secondary school was measured by four items (e.g. do you give up if you get a difficult task) answers were given on a dichotomous scale. Continuous variables were created for both constructs using the factor scores generated by a principal component analysis. Cognitive ability was measured in grade 6 using tests of inductive ability, spatial ability and verbal ability (antonyms). Information on salary was retrieved from population statistics. Information about the salary for these individuals is available between the years 1988 and 2010. Method of analysis To investigate the salary growth of resilient students multiple group growth model with time varying and time invariant covariates will be used. Growth modelling allows for investigating the development of salary over time for both resilient and non-resilient students, conditioned on the development of individual’s educational attainment and work status, and on their cognitive ability, and personality traits. Academic self-concept and perseverance will be used as time-invariant covariates and educational attainment as time-varying covariates.

Our preliminary results revealed that the resilient group has a slower rate of change of their salary level after the upper secondary education. This may be due to the fact that majority of the individuals in this group did not enter directly into the labour market but continue to higher education. However, we observed a steeper trajectory of salary development for these individuals after completing their higher education. The individuals in the non-resilience group held a higher starting salary level but a slower growth in their salary level over time. Additionally, we found that both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, i.e. perseverance and academic self-concept explained the salary growth for academically resilient students. The explanation power was much lower or non-significant for their counterparts. We expect even clearer difference in the salary development between resilient and non-resilient individual groups when we control for the time varying covariates such as their education level and their work status, as well as time invariant covariates such as, IQ.

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