How Diversity Approaches Affect Ethnic Minority and Majority Adolescents: Teacher-Student Relationship Trajectories and School Outcomes

Trajectories of ethnic discrimination and school adjustment of ethnically minoritized adolescents: The role of school diversity climate

This study investigated trajectories of ethnic discrimination experiences in school, diversity climates as contextual antecedents, and school adjustment as outcome. Latent-Growth-Mixture-Models of repeated self-reported discrimination over 3 years (2012-2015) by 1445 ethnically-minoritized adolescents of Turkish and Moroccan background in 70 Belgian schools (52.6% boys, Mage = 15.07) revealed four trajectories: low (72.5%), moderate (16.6%), initially-high (6.5%), or increasingly high discrimination (4.4%). Adolescents who attended schools with more minoritized peers, or schools that valued cultural diversity and equality, were more often in low-discrimination trajectories, which predicted better academic outcomes. Overall, school diversity climates can protect minoritized adolescents from experiencing persistent or initially high discrimination over time. Moreover, high discrimination at any point in schooling-initially or later-is harmful to adolescents' school adjustment.

It's not what you say it's what you do: School diversity ideologies and adolescent mental health and academic engagement

This study examined the relation between schools' color-evasive versus multicultural diversity ideologies, school characteristics, and adolescent development. Across two datasets linking individual-level survey data (N = 1692) and administrative records (N = 300,063; Mage = 12.4, 52% female, 48% male), schools' stated support for diversity (via a pro-diversity mission statement) was related to adolescent mental health and academic achievement, but in nuanced ways depending on individual racial/ethnic backgrounds, the racial/ethnic diversity of the student body and teachers, and the extent of racial disparities in discipline and gifted education. Findings suggest that communicating support for diversity without redressing systemic inequities in school discipline and academic tracking will not reduce racism-related achievement gaps and may instead exacerbate mental health disparities.

National Identity Development Among Minority Youth: Longitudinal Relations with National Fit Perceptions and School Belonging

Across Western Europe, immigrant-origin minority youth often struggle to belong socially and to develop national self-identification. Yet, almost no research to-date has asked how these youth perceive the cultural contents of the national identity in their residence country-or rather, to what extent they perceive youth like them to (mis)fit the national identity. The present study addressed this research gap by centering schools as developmental contexts of evolving belonging and national self-identification and newly inquiring into minority youth's perceptions of national (mis)fit as critical levers of their national identity development. Drawing on data from two annual waves of the Leuven-Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (Leuven-CILS), a sample of 942 Moroccan- and Turkish-origin youth (Mage-T1 = 14.98, SD = 1.22; 52% female) in 62 Belgian schools was used. Cross-lagged analysis combined repeated measures of school belonging and national self-identification with vignette measures of the perceived national fit of (imagined) culturally different peers. While school belonging and national self-identification were unrelated over time, earlier perceived national fit uniquely enabled more national self-identification one year later, over and above evolving school belonging. These findings suggest that experiencing belonging in school does not suffice for minority youth to develop national self-identification. Schools may, however, promote national identity development through redefining national identities to include cultural diversity-thereby signaling to minority youth that they can fit the national identity.

Longitudinal relations between teacher support and academic achievement among Chinese children: Disentangling between‑ and within-student associations

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between teacher support (i.e., emotional and instrumental support) and academic (i.e., math) achievement at the between-student and within-student levels using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs). Data were collected from 694 elementary school students in China (44.9% girls; Mage = 10.53 years, SD = 0.70) over four waves across 2 school years. Results from the RI-CLPMs supported that higher academic achievement was significantly associated with higher teacher emotional and instrumental support at the between-student level. At the within-student level, the RI-CLPMs only supported the predictive effect of academic achievement on teacher instrumental support, but not emotional support. Further analysis utilizing cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) demonstrated significant reciprocal effects between teacher emotional support and academic achievement, as well as instrumental support and academic achievement. No significant sex differences were observed in RI-CLPMs or CLPMs. The findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing the between-student and within-student associations in longitudinal relations concerning teacher support and academic achievement.

Profiles of interpersonal relationship qualities and trajectories of internalizing problems among Chinese adolescents

Adolescence is a significant period for the formation of relationship networks and the development of internalizing problems. With a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 3,834, 52.01% girls, Mage = 16.68 at Wave 1), the present study aimed to identify the configuration of adolescents' relationship qualities from four important domains (i.e., relationship quality with mother, father, peers, and teachers) and how distinct profiles were associated with the development of internalizing problems (indicated by depressive and anxiety symptoms) across high school years. Latent profile analysis identified a five-profile configuration with four convergent profiles (i.e., relationship qualities with others were generally good or bad) and one "Father estrangement" profile (i.e., the relationship quality with others were relatively good but that with father was particularly poor). Further conditional latent growth curve analysis indicated the "Father estrangement" profile was especially vulnerable to an increase in the internalizing problems as compared with other relationship profiles. This study contributes to understanding the characteristics of interpersonal relationship qualities and their influences on adolescent internalizing problems in a non-Western context. Results were further discussed from a culturally specific perspective.

Inequalities in Home Learning and Schools' Remote Teaching Provision during the COVID-19 School Closure in the UK

Millions were affected by COVID-19 school closures, with parents and schools caught unprepared. Education is expected to play a role in creating equal opportunities, so transferring schooling responsibilities to families may have increased learning inequalities generated by family backgrounds. We examined the time students spent on home learning and explored the role of the schools' distance teaching provision in explaining differences traditionally attributed to parental education, eligibility for free school meals, ethnic background and single parenthood. Using the Understanding Society COVID-19 dataset, we found children who received free school meals, single-parent families and children with parents with lower formal education qualifications and Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds spent significantly less time on schoolwork. However, schools' provision of offline and online distance teaching and homework checking significantly increased the time spent on learning and reduced some inequalities, demonstrating the policy relevance of digital preparedness to limit learning loss in school closures.

Adolescents' mutual acculturation attitudes and their association with national self-identification in three Swiss cantons

Acculturation is a mutual process, meaning that members of minority as well as majority groups acculturate and thus experience cultural and psychological changes when having intercultural contact. This study assessed mutual acculturation attitudes in the school context through a four-dimensional measurement examining attitudes toward (1) migration background students' heritage culture maintenance and their (2) dominant culture adoption, (3) majority students' intercultural knowledge acquisition, and (4) schools' intercultural contact endorsement. Acculturation attitudes are commonly analyzed through minority and majority perspectives; however, the ways in which researchers categorize group members can differ significantly from how those members self-identify. This matters particularly for adolescents because they explore group identities and belongings. So far, adolescents' mutual acculturation attitudes have not been studied in relation to national self-identification measures. The current study addressed this research gap by analyzing mutual acculturation attitudes in relation to how strongly adolescents self-identify as (1) being Swiss, (2) having a migration background, and (3) the interaction of the two. The sample consisted of 319 adolescents in public secondary schools in three German-speaking cantons in Switzerland (45% female, M_age = 13.60 years, range 12-16). Latent profile analyses resulted in three distinct mutual acculturation profiles. The first is a mutual integration profile (n = 147, 46%), where minority and majority adolescents and schools are expected to integrate. The second is a multiculturalism profile (n = 137, 43%), with slightly lower expectations in all dimensions. The third is a cultural distancing profile (n = 33, 10%), which places particularly low expectations on majority adolescents and schools. Through an analysis of variance and a multiple logistic regression, those in the cultural distancing profile were found to identify significantly stronger as not having a migration background compared to those in the mutual integration profile. Thus, students having separation expectations toward minority students and non-involvement expectations toward schools and majority students are more likely to self-identify as not having a migration background than students having mutual integration expectations.

How School and Home Contexts Impact the School Adjustment of Adolescents from Different Ethnic and SES Backgrounds During COVID-19 School Closures

Many schools worldwide closed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, the consequences of school closures for the school adjustment of adolescents from different ethnic and SES backgrounds remain unclear. This study examined how school adjustment changed before, during, and after school closure across adolescents from different ethnic and SES backgrounds; and which factors in home and school contexts served as resources. Early adolescents (N = 124, M_age = 12.86, 58.8% boys) from different ethnic and SES backgrounds were repeatedly assessed 1 week before (March 2020), during (June 2020), and 1 year after (February 2021) the first school closure in Belgium. The results revealed that school closure augmented ethnicity- and SES-based inequalities in school adjustment. Moreover, factors in the school context-and not the home context-served as resources. Specifically, the quality of online instruction and teacher-pupil relationships buffered against reduced school adjustment during school closure, particularly among youth from ethnic minority and lower SES backgrounds. The findings corroborate unequal school adjustment consequences of school closures, but also highlight the role of teachers to buffer against them. The study design, hypotheses, and analyses were preregistered in the following link: https://osf.io/6ygcu/?view_only=c77cfb46028447bdb7844cd2c76237aa .

Enhancing or reducing interethnic hierarchies? Teacher diversity approaches and ethnic majority and minority students' ethnic attitudes and discrimination experiences

Diversity approaches in school may affect students' interethnic relations but are often only assessed through students' perceptions. We related teacher-reported diversity approaches (i.e., assimilationism, multiculturalism, color-evasion, and intervening with discrimination) to ethnic majority and minority students' ethnic attitudes as well as to their experiences or perceptions of ethnic discrimination. We also explored students' perceptions of teacher approaches as hypothetical mediators of teacher effects on interethnic relations. We coupled survey data from 547 teachers (M_age = 39.02 years, 70% female) in 64 schools in Belgium with large-scale longitudinal survey data from their students, including 1287 Belgian majority students (M_age = 15.52, 51% female) and 696 Turkish- or Moroccan-origin minority students (M_age = 15.92, 58% female) enrolled in the same schools (Phalet et al., 2018). Longitudinal multilevel models revealed that over time, teacher-reported assimilationism predicted (even) more positive attitudes towards Belgian majority members, and multiculturalism predicted less highly positive attitudes towards Belgian majority members among Belgian majority students. Teacher-reported intervening with discrimination predicted more perceived discrimination of ethnic minority students over time among Belgian majority students. We did not find significant longitudinal effects of teachers' diversity approaches with Turkish- or Moroccan-origin minority students' ethnic attitudes, nor with their discrimination experiences or perceptions. We conclude that teachers' multiculturalism and anti-discrimination approaches reduced interethnic bias and raised awareness of discrimination among ethnic majority students. However, different perceptions by teachers and students suggest the need for schools to better communicate inclusive diversity approaches.

The Quality of Early Caregiving and Teacher-Student Relationships in Grade School Independently Predict Adolescent Academic Achievement

Prior research has demonstrated that teacher-student relationships characterized by high levels of closeness and low levels of conflict are associated with higher levels of academic achievement among children. At the same time: (a) some research suggests that the quality of teacher-student relationships in part reflects the quality of early caregiving; and (b) the observed quality of early care by primary caregivers robustly predicts subsequent academic achievement. Given the potential for associations between the quality of teacher-student relationship quality and academic achievement to thus be confounded by the quality of early parenting experiences, the present study examined to what extent children's experiences in early life with primary caregivers (i.e., ages 3 to 42 months) and relationships with teachers during grade school (i.e., Kindergarten to Grade 6) were uniquely associated with an objective assessment of academic achievement at age 16 years in a sample born into poverty (N = 169; 45% female; 70% White/non-Hispanic; 38% of mothers did not complete high school). Early maternal sensitivity, though a strong predictor of later academic achievement, was not reliably associated with either teacher-reports or interview-based assessments of teacher-student relationship quality in grade school. Nonetheless, early maternal sensitivity and teacher-student relationship quality were each uniquely associated with later academic achievement, above and beyond key demographic variables. Taken together, the present results highlight that the quality of children's relationships with adults at home and at school independently, but not interactively, predicted later academic achievement in a high-risk sample.

The Association Between Perceived Discriminatory Climate in School and Student Performance in Math and Reading: A Cross-National Analysis Using PISA 2018

The negative consequences of perceived ethnic discrimination on adolescent adjustment are well documented. Less is known, however, about the consequences of discriminatory climates in school, beyond the individual experiences of discrimination. This study investigated whether a perceived discriminatory climate in school is associated with lower academic performance across adolescents from ethnic minority and majority groups, and which psychological mechanisms may account for this link. Using the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, the participants were 445,534 adolescents (aged 15-16, 50% girls) in 16,002 schools across 60 countries. In almost all countries, a discriminatory climate-i.e., student perceptions of teachers' discriminatory beliefs and behaviors in school-was associated with lower math and reading scores across all pupils, although minorities perceived a more discriminatory climate. Lower school belonging and lower values attributed to learning partially mediated these associations. The findings demonstrate that schools' ethnic and racial climates predict standardized academic performance across schools and countries among pupils from both ethnic majority and minority groups.

Teachers’ acculturation in culturally diverse schools - How is the perceived diversity climate linked to intercultural self-efficacy?

While in the school context, acculturation is often studied in relation to students of immigrant descent, the current study applies an acculturation framework to teachers mostly representing the mainstream culture. Specifically, we investigated whether teachers’ acculturation attitudes towards their students mediate effects of the perceived cultural diversity climate at school on teachers’ intercultural self-efficacy in culturally diverse classrooms. Analyses were based on reports of 186 teachers (14% of immigrant descent; M_age = 40.8; SD_age = 11.8, 73% female) in 22 culturally diverse secondary schools in Southwest Germany. Path analyses indicated that perceived norms of cultural pluralism, and perceived norms of equality and inclusion are directly and positively associated with facets of intercultural self-efficacy. Moreover, teachers’ support for cultural maintenance amongst their students was associated with intercultural self- efficacy, but no mediation was found between climate and intercultural self-efficacy via acculturation attitudes. Implications for teacher training, educational practice and future research on the acculturation and adjustment of teachers in culturally diverse classrooms are discussed.

Perceived Teacher Discrimination and Depressive Feelings in Adolescents: The Role of National, Regional, and Heritage Identities in Flemish Schools

Adolescents’ identities are multiple, yet there is very little research that investigates the importance of intersecting identities, especially in relationship to teacher ethnic/racial discrimination and mental health. Multiplicity is often approached bi-dimensional (heritage and national identities) yet this study highlights the importance of regional identity. Regions are distinct socio-political contexts in relation to migration and integration dynamics. Hence, this study investigates for different combinations of national, heritage and regional identities (i.e. Flemish, Belgian and Turkish or Moroccan) the relationship between students’ experiences with teacher ethnic/racial discrimination and students’ depressive feelings. Latent Class Analysis of survey data involving a sample of 439 adolescents (M_age = 18, SD = 0.93; Girls = 49%) with Turkish (41%) or Moroccan origin in Flanders, shows three identification classes: full integration (35%), national integration (40%) and (weak) separation (24%). All these identity profiles had in common that heritage identification was high, yet they were highly distinct due to variation in national and regional identification. Additional, multilevel modelling showed that nationally integrated adolescents were less depressed than fully integrated adolescents. This finding illustrates the importance of adolescents’ identity multiplicity for understanding their resilience in relation to teacher discrimination.

A Look at Race, Skin Tone, and High School Students’ Perceptions of Teacher–Student Relationship Quality

Racial disparities in education have put a spotlight on the role of teachers and the school environment that is created for students. As teachers are seen as a vital element of school climate, the interactions between teachers and students can have a significant effect on students’ success. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between race, skin tone, and teacher–student relationship (TSR) quality. Data drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study included 995 ethnically and racially diverse adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that being Black, Hispanic, or Multi-racial was significantly associated with TSRs. However, there were no between-group differences in TSRs across racial categories. Skin tone was not a significant predictor of TSRs and did not moderate the relationship between race and TSRs. Findings raise important implications for teacher training and professional development focused on culturally relevant practices that support optimal student interactions and provide promising evidence for school connectedness as an intervening mechanism in improving TSR quality, particularly for students of color.

Minority and Majority Adolescents' Attitudes toward Mutual Acculturation and its Association with Psychological Adjustment

Although acculturation is considered a mutual process, no measure assesses attitudes toward mutual acculturation. Through a novel four-dimensional measurement, this study addresses this research gap by assessing attitudes toward minority and majority acculturation and its relation to psychological adjustment for immigrant-background minority and non-immigrant majority adolescents in public secondary schools in three European countries: in Germany (n = 346, 46% female, M_age = 12.78 years, range 11-16), Greece (n = 439, 56% female, M_age = 12.29 years, range 11-20), and Switzerland (n = 375, 47% female, M_age = 12.67 years, range 11-15). Latent profile analyses led to three distinct acculturation profiles in all three countries: strong and mild mutual integration profiles, where both migrant and majority students are expected to integrate, and a third profile assuming lower responsibility upon the majority. Additionally, those in the strong- and mild-integration profiles reported stronger psychological adjustment than those assuming lower responsibility upon the majority, which held for all students in Switzerland and mostly for those without a migration background in Germany. The findings demonstrate the importance of a mutual acculturation framework for future research. Moreover, as most adolescents fit in with one of the mutual integration patterns, findings stress that no matter their migration background, adolescents favor mutual integration including the expectation on schools to enhance intercultural contact.

Do teachers’ cultural beliefs matter for students’ school adaptation? A multilevel analysis of students’ academic achievement and psychological school adjustment

Based on two large-scale studies from Germany, we examined how different types of teachers’ cultural beliefs are related to immigrant students’ school adaptation. Specifically, we investigated the relationship of teachers' multicultural beliefs appreciating cultural diversity, their egalitarian beliefs focusing on all students' similarities and their assimilationist beliefs that immigrant students should conform to the mainstream context with immigrant students' academic achievement and psychological school adjustment as indicators of their school adaptation. We also explored all of these associations for non-immigrant students. Study 1 used data on the multicultural, egalitarian, and assimilationist beliefs of German language (NTeachers = 220) and mathematics (NTeachers = 245) teachers and on students’ achievement and feelings of helplessness in German language classes (NStudents = 2606) and mathematics classes (NStudents = 2851) as well as students’ school satisfaction. Study 2 analyzed data on teachers’ multicultural and egalitarian beliefs (NTeachers = 456) and students’ achievement and self-concept in mathematics (NStudents = 4722). Overall, multilevel analyses revealed no relationship between teachers’ cultural beliefs and any of the indicators of immigrant and non-immigrant students’ school adaptation. These findings challenge the notion that overall, teachers’ cultural beliefs effectively translate into students’ school adaptation.