Poverty and Resilience: The conditions under which teenager from poor households graduate from secondary school in Germany

The following study investigates the conditions under which adolescents in Germany between the ages of 16 and 19 who experienced poverty at some point during childhood complete secondary school. Based on considerations from resilience and socialization theory, we test the relevance of social and personal factors for success in secondary school. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the years 2001-2009, including 467 adolescents who experienced poverty, our quantitative analysis shows the high importance of parental education. Parents' engagement in their children's schooling and adolescents' gender-specific personality traits also prove relevant for success in school. Technical and artistic engagement did not prove significant for the school success of adolescents who had experienced poverty, in contrast to the control group of 1,570 young people who had not.