School adjustment, school membership and adolescents' future expectations

Attachment to Peers and School: Longitudinal Moderators of the Relation Between Caregiver Psychological Distress and Adolescent Hopelessness

Research has yet to determine how relationships outside of the family system may buffer negative outcomes associated with hopelessness among racial minority youth. In a sample of Black American youth (N = 512; 49% females) and their parents or caregivers, this study used longitudinal growth models to explore whether youth relationships (attachment to peers and attachment to school) moderated the association between caregiver distress (depressive symptoms and traumatic stress), and youth hopelessness. Adolescents' gender was examined to determine if there were gender differences present in these associations. Four linear growth models showed a significant change in levels of hopelessness over time for youth and a significant positive relation between caregiver distress and youth level of hopelessness. Attachment to peers and attachment to school did not equally moderate the relation between caregiver psychological distress and youth hopelessness. The type of caregiver distress had a differential effect on youth hopelessness in the context of the moderation models and based on gender. The type of caregiver distress had a differential effect on youth hopelessness in the context of the moderation models and based on gender. Implications for the importance of non-familial attachments among Black American youth with distressed parents are discussed.

Socioeconomic origin, future expectations, and educational achievement: A longitudinal three-generation study of the persistence of family advantage

Expectations about the future direct effort in goal-oriented action and may influence a range of life course outcomes, including educational attainment. Here we investigate whether such expectations are implicated in the dynamics underlying the persistence of educational advantage across family generations, and whether such dynamics have changed in recent decades in view of historical change. Focusing on the role of domain-specific (educational) and general (optimism and control) expectations, we examine parallels across parent-child cohorts in (a) the relationships between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and children's future expectations and (b) the associations between children's future expectations and their academic achievement. We estimate structural equation models using data from the prospective multigenerational Youth Development Study (N = 422 three-generation triads [G1-G2-G3]; G1 Mage in 1988 = 41.0 years, G2 Mage in 1989 = 14.7 years, G3 Mage in 2011 = 15.8 years; G2 White in 1989 = 66.4%, G3 White in 2011 = 64.4%; G1 mean annual household income, converted to 2008 equivalents = $41,687, G2 mean annual household income in 2008 dollars = $42,962; G1 mode of educational attainment = high school, G2 mode of educational attainment = some college). We find intergenerational similarity in the relationships between parental educational attainment and children's future expectations. Children's educational expectations strongly predicted their academic achievement in the second generation, but not in the third generation. With educational expansion, the more recent cohort had higher educational expectations that were less strongly related to achievement. Overall, the findings reveal dynamics underlying the persistence of educational success across generations. The role of future expectations in this intergenerational process varies across historical time, confirming a central conclusion of life span developmental psychology and life course sociological research that individual functioning is influenced by sociocultural contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Teacher: But Not Student Rating of the Pedagogic and Social Climate in School Predicts Adolescents’ Academic Aspirations

Background

High academic aspirations relate to higher achievement and better mental health, but less is known about how these aspirations are formed in relation to the educational context.

Objective

This study aims to investigate the relationship between overall school climate, with particular concern for the dimensions of school level expectations and support as rated by both teachers and students and adolescent academic aspirations.

Methods

Multilevel logistic models for repeated measures were used in order to investigate the relationship between measures of school climate and adolescents’ academic aspirations. Three annual waves of questionnaire data were used to obtain aggregated teacher- and student-rating of school climate, including specific dimensions of teacher expectations and support.

Results

Positive teacher-rated overall school climate was associated with an increased odds of adolescents aiming at a university education rather than at a lower one (adjusted OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.14–1.63 for the intermediate tertile; OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.14–1.70 for the highest tertile). A similar trend was found for the teacher-rated measures of expectations and student focus, but not for any of the student-rated school climate measures.

Conclusion

A positive school climate rated by teachers appears to predict adolescents’ university aspirations. Future research should clarify which aspects of the school climate may influence adolescent academic aspirations from the students’ perspective.

Self-Clarity and Ways of Coping Among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Existing literature supports the notion that adolescent's level of self-esteem is significantly related to negative health outcomes and that this relatedness is mediated by the adolescent's way of coping. However, the role of self-clarity, rather than the level of self-esteem, is still understudied. The current study explored the relationships between level of self-clarity and preferred ways of coping among three religious groups-Jews (N = 245), Muslim Arabs (N = 244), and Christian Arabs (N = 241), with each of these groups comprised of two age cohorts-adolescents (N = 383) and emerging adults (N = 347)-living in either mixed-religion (N = 376) or non-mixed-religion residential areas (N = 344). Study findings indicate that across religion and age-groups, lower self-clarity is associated with a higher tendency to use disengagement as a way of coping. It is suggested that interventions to promote adolescents' active coping and resilience (e.g., as part of an effort to prevent health problems) should firstly pursue the promotion of adolescents' self-clarity.

Examination of the Latent Structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale

Despite its widespread use, there has been limited examination of the underlying factor structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the PSSM to refine its utility for researchers and practitioners using a sample of 504 Australian high school students. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the PSSM is a multidimensional instrument. Factor analysis procedures identified three factors representing related aspects of students’ perceptions of their school membership: caring relationships, acceptance , and rejection.

Negotiating the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

The transition from primary to secondary school is regarded as one of the most difficult in pupils' educational careers. This article describes the results of a survey undertaken in the UK, in which the views of primary pupils, secondary pupils, parents and teachers were ascertained in regard to the transition process. Specifically, we sought to determine the concerns and expectations of respondents and also to establish the extent to which the views of the four groups were in accordance with one another. A total of 472 respondents completed the survey. Results showed that bullying was a major concern for all groups, followed by fears of getting lost, increased workload and peer relationships, among others. The concerns of British pupils were broadly similar to those reported in the literature for pupils in other countries. The views of primary pupils and their parents were highly similar, and if the experience of transition is to be improved, it may be necessary to focus efforts on both of these groups. Teachers rarely identified children's individual abilities as making a difference to the transition process, focusing instead on institutional initiatives, an emphasis that carries the risk of creating a degree of helplessness for individual pupils.

Contextual Determinants of Adolescent Perceived Early Fatality

Adolescents overestimate their risk for early or premature death. In turn, perceived early fatality is associated with a host of adverse developmental outcomes. Research on the correlates of perceived early fatality is nascent, and an examination of the contextual determinants of perceived early fatality is largely absent from the literature. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this study examines whether friendship networks and the school climate impact youth's perceptions of premature death. Analysis using hierarchical linear models on 9617 youth (52.0 % female) within 113 middle and high schools across the U.S. assess the extent to which peer and school future orientation climate and friendship network characteristics (network size, density, popularity, and centrality) impact respondents' life expectancy. Consistent with hypotheses: (1) higher levels of life expectancy in respondents' friendship networks and schools are associated with more optimistic expectations about the future among sample respondents; and (2) youth embedded in larger and denser friendship networks report higher levels of life expectancy. The results are consistent with the literature on peer effects, studies documenting the insulating effects of extensive and closely knit peer networks, and research on the contextual effects of the school environment. More generally, the results suggest that adolescent friendship networks and the school climate are key contexts in which youth develop expectations for the future.

Negative life events and school adjustment among Chinese nursing students: The mediating role of psychological capital

BACKGROUND

Adjustment difficulties of college students are common and their school adjustment has gained wide concern in recent years. Negative life events and psychological capital (PsyCap) have been associated with school adjustment. However, the potential impact of negative life events on PsyCap, and whether PsyCap mediates the relationship between negative life events and school adjustment among nursing students have not been studied.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the relationship among negative life events, PsyCap, and school adjustment among five-year vocational high school nursing students in China and the mediating role of PsyCap between negative life events and school adjustment.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey design was conducted.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS

643 five-year vocational high school nursing students were recruited from three public high vocational colleges in Shandong of China.

METHODS

Adolescent Self-Rating Life Event Checklist (ASLEC), the Psychological Capital Questionnaire for Adolescent Students scale (PCQAS), and the Chinese College Student Adjustment Scale (CCSAS) were used in this study. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed to explore the mediating role of PsyCap.

RESULTS

Negative life events were negatively associated with the dimensions of school adjustment (interpersonal relationship adaptation, learning adaptation, campus life adaptation, career adaptation, emotional adaptation, self-adaptation, and degree of satisfaction). PsyCap was positively associated with the dimensions of school adjustment and negatively associated with negative life events. PsyCap partially mediated the relationship between negative life events and school adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS

Negative life events may increase the risk of school maladjustment in individuals with low PsyCap. Interventions designed to increase nursing students' PsyCap might buffer the stress of adverse life events, and thereby, enhance students' positive adjustment to school.

"On solid ground": family and school connectedness promotes adolescents' future orientation

The present study investigated the role of connectedness to the family and school contexts on future orientation of New Zealand adolescents. Participants were 1774 young people (51.9% female) aged between 9 and 16 years at time 1 of the study, who reported their connectedness to family and school and their perceptions of future orientation at three times of measurement one year apart. Structural equation modelling was used to test the combined role of family and school connectedness on future orientation over time. Findings supported a multiple mediation model in that adolescents' connectedness to family and school predicted more positive perceptions of future orientation both directly and indirectly via the effect of the context variables on each other.

School Connectedness Is an Underemphasized Parameter in Adolescent Mental Health: Results of a Community Prediction Study

There is limited prospective research on the relation between school connectedness (i.e., the extent to which students feel accepted, valued, respected, and included in the school) and mental health symptoms in adolescents. A sample of 2,022 students (999 boys and 1,023 girls) ages 12 to 14 years were measured at 2 time points (12 months apart) on school connectedness and mental health symptoms (general functioning, depression, and anxiety symptoms). School connectedness correlated extensively with concurrent mental health symptoms at both time points (between 38% and 55% covariation with depression, 26% to 46% with general functioning, and 9% and 16% for anxiety symptoms). Using hierarchical linear modeling, school connectedness also predicted depressive symptoms 1 year later for both boys and girls, anxiety symptoms for girls, and general functioning for boys, even after controlling for prior symptoms. The reverse, however, was not true: Prior mental health symptoms did not predict school connectedness 1 year later when controlling for prior school connectedness. Results suggest a stronger than previously reported association with school connectedness and adolescent depressive symptoms in particular and a predictive link from school connectedness to future mental health problems.

Health behaviours, risk-taking and conceptual changes among schoolchildren aged 7 to 19 years in semi-rural Sweden

BACKGROUND

This study covers a broad age group (7-19 years) and includes a wide range of themes. The aim is to describe how various behaviours, complaints and conceptual changes come into play and to discuss the factors that might support or hamper the happiness and well-being of growing children and adolescents. We also discuss the implications of our findings for future prevention programmes.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included all schoolchildren in a semi-rural district in Sweden (2181 pupils). A structured classroom questionnaire was used but the children were also given the opportunity to describe in their own words what was important for their happiness and well-being.

RESULTS

Mean response rate was 85%. Most changes in behaviour occurred between 11 and 14 years of age. Girls had a more rapid process of change than boys. Both girls and boys experienced stress in their relations with peers, parents and teachers. Gender differences in emotional support were prominent. Regardless of age and sex, all schoolchildren asked for a richer choice of leisure time activities, a place where they could meet with friends and caring teachers, parents and adults in the surrounding community.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescence was perceived as a risky and problematic period not only by adults but also by the adolescents themselves. However, the perceived risks and the worries differed. While the adults mainly worried about the early onset of smoking and drug use, the schoolchildren worried about their social situation and their personal relationships. After decades of preventive programmes in Swedish schools, only modest results are seen. To be effective, future preventive programmes probably have to focus more on the conceptual world of the growing child.