Ecology of Adolescent Risk and Protective Factors that Contribute to Academic Success in Myanmar

School failure among children and adolescents has long been a serious issue in Myanmar. The recent statistics indicate that a large number of adolescents do not complete high school. As a consequence, they lose prosperous work opportunities and ability to earn an adequate income. These outcomes highlight a need to study the factors that hamper academic success of adolescents in Myanmar. Academic success is a complex concept and needs a multidimensional perspective to gain an accurate understanding of factors associated with it. Therefore, this study used an ecological risk/protective model and identified risk and protective factors that contribute to academic success of adolescents through five ecological systems of an adolescent: individual, family, peer, school, and community. This study was conducted at one government and monastic school in Myanmar. The data was collected from a sample of 50 high school students, parents and teachers through interviews and focus group discussions. This study reviewed and analyzed the data by using constant comparative method. A total of 27 distinctive ecological risk and protective factors that contribute to adolescents’ academic success in Myanmar emerged from the study. The findings of this study provided important recommendations to inform policy and practice interventions for adolescents to improve their academic performance. The findings also highlighted the influence of schools, families and communities on academic success of adolescents and a need of school social work services in Myanmar to address school failure of adolescents. Last but not least, this study contributed to the local literature by expanding the knowledge base on the concepts of ecological model and strengths-based perspective which are very new for educators and social workers in Myanmar.