Meeting the needs of at-risk urban high school students is a serious challenge in schools today. Research shows a relationship between the environmental risk factors that define a student as at-risk and the risk factors which many influence a student's academic self-efficacy. Many of these risk factors overlap. They include living in a non-nuclear family, being a teen parent, living in poverty, having a parent without a high school diploma or GED, and living in a household where drugs and/or alcohol are used.
The question the research attempted to answer was: How do environmental risk factors affect at-risk urban high school students' academic self-efficacy? This study investigated five identified environmental risk factors by interviewing students and asking them to complete a guided writing. Questions in the interview and guided writings were aimed at determining if students felt being exposed to environmental risk factors had affected their academic self-efficacy.
The research showed that some students felt their academic self-efficacy had been affected by their exposure to environmental risk factors and some did not. Two of the three participants who were exposed to being a teen parent felt it had affected their academic self-efficacy. Four of the eight participants exposed to drug and/or alcohol use in their household reported it had affected their academic self-efficacy. Four of the thirteen participants who were exposed to living in poverty reported it had affected their academic self-efficacy. Five of the nine participants exposed to having a parent without a high school diploma or GED reported it had affected their academic self-efficacy. Finally, seven of the fourteen participants exposed to living in a non-nuclear family reported it had affected their academic self-efficacy.
Not all effects on academic self-efficacy which resulted in being exposed to environmental risk factors were negative. Some students reported that being exposed to certain environmental risk factors had actually had a positive effect on their academic self-efficacy and the exposure had made them want to be a better person. Some affects were negative, however. Some participants had feelings of abandonment, anger, and sadness.
In summary, there is not consistency between exposure to environmental risk factors and the effect it has on a student's academic self-efficacy. Exposure to environmental risk factors affected students in different ways and a few participants did not believe their academic self-efficacy had been at all affected by exposure to environmental risk factors. Students are unique individuals with unique challenges and their own way of coping with exposure to environmental risk factors.