Assets and school dropout among Roma and Egyptian minority adolescents in Albania

Eglantina Dervishi, Fatjona Hysi, Nora Wiium and Desara Agaj

Abstract

Developmental assets are negatively associated with school drop-out of adolescents. This study aimed to explore how environmental assets can be associated with drop-out from school among Roma and Egyptian youth in Albania, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consisted of 201 youths between 14 and 20 years old (M=16.6 years; SD=1.77) who belonged to Roma and Egyptian minorities with similar background characteristics in three cities of Albania. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic data including age, gender, level of education, and ethnicity, as well as Internal and External assets by using the Developmental Assets Profile (Search Institute, 2007). Data were analysed using Pearson Correlations, t-tests, and two-way ANOVAs. Higher levels of environmental assets were present in Egyptian youth compared to the Roma youth. Drop-out was a strong predictor of low levels of developmental assets. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the external and internal assets of Roma and Egyptian youth in Albania. Our findings indicate that developmental assets are deeply compromised for a minority of youth that drops out of school at an early age. Thus, an intervention program that will promote these assets is needed in both communities in Albania.

Dervishi, E., Hysi, F., Wiium, N. and Agaj, D. (2022) Assets and school dropout among Roma and Egyptian minority adolescents in Albania. Educationalfutures, [online] Vol. 13(2). Available at: https://educationstudies.org.uk/?p=18999 [Accessed 27 Apr, 2024].

Creative Commons LicensePublished under Creative Commons Attribution, Non Commercial Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Keywords

Youth, external assets, internal assets, level of education, school drop-out

Volume

Volume 13(2) 2022

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