School effectiveness and students' future orientation: A multilevel analysis of upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden

Poor school performance and gambling among adolescents: Can the association be moderated by conditions in school?

Introduction

Protective factors of adolescent gambling at the school level and their buffering potential are scarcely explored in prior research. This study aims to examine the protective possibility of low student-teacher ratio on youth gambling, both directly and by moderating the effect of low school performance.

Methods

Data were derived from the 2016 Stockholm school survey, collected among 5,221 grade 11 students (∼17-18 years) in 46 schools, with information on schools' composition and student-teacher ratio obtained through registers. Gambling and risk gambling were coded as binary variables. School performance was captured by self-reported marks in three core subjects, dichotomised into average/above average and below average, respectively. Student-teacher ratio was used both as a continuous and trichotomised variable. Two-level binary logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results

A below average school performance was associated with gambling and risk gambling but the association with gambling was only statistically significant at the 10%-level in the fully adjusted model. Student-teacher ratio was not directly associated with gambling and risk gambling but moderated the associations between school performance and both gambling and risk gambling, as these relationships were less pronounced in schools with a low student-teacher ratio.

Conclusions

In sum, a low student-teacher ratio may protect students from gambling and risk gambling by buffering against the adverse effects of other risk factors, such as poor school performance. These findings suggest that a higher teacher density in upper secondary schools can be beneficial beyond school matters by positively influencing student behaviour outside of school.

Problematic familial alcohol use and adolescent outcomes: Do associations differ by parental education?

Aim: To investigate the associations between problematic familial alcohol use and adolescent subjective health, binge drinking, relationships with parents, school performance, and future orientation, and to study whether these associations differ in relation to parental education. Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Stockholm School Survey (SSS) collected among students in the 9th and 11th grades in 2018 and in 2020 were used (n = 19,415). Subjective health, parent-youth relationships, and school performance were coded as continuous variables; binge drinking and future orientation were coded as binary variables. Familial drinking included three categories: problematic; don't know/missing; and not problematic. Parental university education distinguished between adolescents with two, one, or no university-educated parent(s). Control variables included gender, grade, family structure, migration background, parental unemployment, and survey year. Linear and binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: Problematic familial alcohol use was associated with worsened subjective health, a higher likelihood of engaging in binge drinking, worse relationships with parents, and a higher likelihood of having a pessimistic future orientation, even when adjusting for all control variables. Having less than two university-educated parents was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting problematic familial alcohol use. Parental university education moderated the association between problematic familial alcohol use and binge drinking as this relationship was stronger for adolescents with no and one university-educated parent(s). Conclusions: Adolescents with problematic familial alcohol use fared worse with regards to all studied outcomes, except for school performance. Parental university education only moderated the association between problematic familial alcohol use and binge drinking. However, since problematic familial alcohol use was more common among adolescents with less than two university-educated parents, we argue that at the group level, this category may be more negatively affected by alcohol abuse in the family. Policy interventions could benefit from having a socioeconomic perspective on how children are affected by alcohol's harms to others.

Internet Use and Academic Achievement Among Chinese Adolescents: Examining the Mediating Role of Future Orientation in a Rural-Urban Dual System

Purpose

Given its growing popularity and the richness of its content, the influence of the Internet on the academic achievement of adolescents has attracted increasing attention. However, how Internet use affects adolescents' academic achievement has not yet been fully discussed in the Chinese context. This study sought to examine the relation between Internet use and adolescents' academic achievement, as well as the mediating effect of future orientation and the urban-rural differences in this mediating effect.

Materials and Methods

Junior high-school students from three schools in Nanjing, China, were recruited to participate in a correlational survey. A total of 1381 participants aged 12-16 years completed the Internet use questionnaire, the future orientation scale, and reported their scores on the most recent grade unified examination.

Results

The analysis results revealed that, after controlling for the variables of grade and gender, (1) the Internet use significantly and positively predicted academic achievement; (2) The future orientation significantly mediated the relation between Internet use and academic achievement; (3) and the effect of Internet use on future orientation was moderated by urban and rural areas. The effect of Internet use in promoting future orientation was only significant among rural adolescents.

Conclusion

The results contribute to a better understanding of how Internet use affects adolescents' academic achievement, revealing that Internet use is of particular significance in the development of rural adolescents.

The Influence of Parenting and Friendship on Self-Esteem in Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Studies in psychology often discuss adolescents with their strong self-esteem as individuals who know themselves. Self-esteem development in adolescents. These adolescents begin to understand the changes of personality development starting from the cognitive aspect or thoughts, emotion, feeling, social, and physical aspects. AIM: This study consistently aimed at finding comprehensive evidence that positive parenting and friendship affect self-esteem in adolescents. METHODS: The population of this study was adolescents, namely 173 senior high school students consisting of 72 males and 100 females who were involved and participated in this study. The data analysis, in this study, was the 2 predictors for linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that parenting and friendship simultaneously influenced self-esteem formation in adolescents. Partially, the result of this study also showed that parenting affected self-esteem formation in adolescents. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, friendship showed a significant effect on self-esteem formation in adolescents. Thus, the hypotheses in this study were accepted.

Teacher-Rated School Leadership and Adolescent Gambling: A Study of Upper Secondary Schools in Stockholm, Sweden

So-called “effective schools” are characterised by properties such as a strong and purposeful school leadership and a favourable school ethos. In a previous study we showed that a school’s degree of teacher-rated ethos was inversely associated with student gambling and risk gambling. Building on these findings, the current study aims to examine the associations that teachers’ ratings of the school leadership share with gambling and risk gambling among students in the second grade of upper secondary school in Stockholm (age 17–18 years). Data were drawn from the Stockholm School Survey and the Stockholm Teacher Survey with information from 5191 students and 1061 teachers in 46 upper secondary schools. School-level information from administrative registers was also linked to the data. The statistical method was two-level binary logistic regression analysis. Teachers’ average ratings of the school leadership were inversely associated with both gambling (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93–0.998, p = 0.039) and risk gambling (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89–0.99, p = 0.031) among upper secondary students, whilst adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics at the student and the school level. The findings lend further support to the hypothesis that characteristics of effective schools may reduce students’ inclination to engage in gambling and risk gambling behaviours.

School ethos and adolescent gambling: a multilevel study of upper secondary schools in Stockholm, Sweden

Background

Gambling is not uncommon among adolescents, and a non-trivial minority has serious problems with gambling. Therefore, enhanced knowledge about factors that may prevent against problematic gambling among youth is needed. Prior research has shown that a strong school ethos, which can be defined as a set of attitudes and values pervading at a school, is associated with a lower inclination among students to engage in various risk behaviours. Knowledge about the link between school ethos and adolescent gambling is however scarce. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between teacher-rated school ethos and student-reported gambling and risk gambling, when controlling also for sociodemographic characteristics at the student- and the school-level.

Methods

Data from two separate cross-sectional surveys were combined. The Stockholm School Survey (SSS) was performed among 5123 students (aged 17–18 years) in 46 upper secondary schools, and the Stockholm Teacher Survey (STS) was carried out among 1061 teachers in the same schools. School ethos was measured by an index based on teachers’ ratings of 12 items in the STS. Adolescent gambling and risk gambling were based on a set of single items in the SSS. Sociodemographic characteristics at the student-level were measured by student-reported information from the SSS. Information on sociodemographic characteristics at the school-level was retrieved from administrative registers. The statistical method was multilevel regression analysis. Two-level binary logistic regression models were performed.

Results

The analyses showed that higher teacher ratings of the school’s ethos were associated with a lower likelihood of gambling and risk gambling among students, when adjusting also for student- and school-level sociodemographic characteristics.

Conclusions

This study showed that school ethos was inversely associated with students’ inclination to engage in gambling and in risk gambling. In more general terms, the study provides evidence that schools’ values and norms as reflected by the teachers’ ratings of their school’s ethos have the potential to counteract unwanted behaviours among the students.