Clarification details
Updated December 2017. This document has been updated to address issues that have arisen from moderation.
Change situation
Students typically respond to a change situation presented as a scenario, or gather their own data by interviewing a person who has experienced change. The scenario should allow opportunity to draw out risk and protective factors at personal, interpersonal and societal levels. If an interview is used, the evaluation needs to focus on the standard’s requirements, rather than solely recount the story of change.
Risk and protective factors
Risk and protective factors are personal, interpersonal and societal influences on a person’s ability to manage life’s changes. These influences exist prior to the change situation being experienced. Risk factors increase the likelihood of difficulties coping with change and protective factors better enable people to cope with life’s changes.
Students will describe the nature of each factor and give reasons to justify why and how each factor hinders or helps a person’s ability to cope with change and be resilient. The Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (2002) provides a list of common risk and protective factors. In order to demonstrate understanding of resilience as a concept, the selected factors should bear relevance to these factors.
Strategies
Students will explain strategies at personal, interpersonal and societal levels to maintain the protective factors and/or minimise the risk factors, and enable a person to better cope with change. Students will describe the actions involved, as well as provide reasons to justify why and how the strategy will help the person to cope with the change situation and be resilient when faced with future changes.
Evaluate in depth
A Merit answer clearly links risk and protective factors to the change situation, and provides in-depth explanations. The strategies are the key actions needed to manage the change situation by minimising the risk factors and/or maintaining the protective factors. Detailed explanations are provided of why and how the strategies will build resilience.
Evaluate comprehensively
For Excellence, the factors and strategies are critical in terms of the change situation and the development of resilience now and in the future. Students may also show understanding of how a major life change results in many inter-related changes, link the factors to relevant determinants of health and/or resilience literature, or explain inter-relationships between the factors and/or the strategies.