The Trajectories of Adolescents' Perceptions of School Climate, Deviant Peer Affiliation, and Behavioral Problems During the Middle School Years

This longitudinal study examined trajectories of change in adolescents' perceptions of four dimensions of school climate (academic support, behavior management, teacher social support, peer social support) and the effects of such trajectories on adolescent problem behaviors. We also tested whether school climate moderated the associations between deviant peer affiliation and adolescent problem behaviors. The 1,030 participating adolescents from 8 schools were followed from 6th through 8th grades (54% female; 76% European American). Findings indicated that all the dimensions of school climate declined and behavioral problems and deviant peer affiliation increased. Declines in each of the dimensions were associated with increases in behavioral problems. The prediction of problem behavior from peer affiliation was moderated by adolescents' perceptions of school climate.     

Adolescent Social, Emotional, and School Adjustment in Mainland China

Recent research has indicated that Chinese adolescents face a variety of challenges and difficulties in socioemotional and school adjustment. It has been found that Chinese adolescents' social and behavioral problems, emotional disturbances, and academic difficulties are highly interrelated and contribute to each other during development. Protective and coping resources that are provided in the culture, including extensive family involvement, support and monitoring systems in school, and regulatory peer group and social networks, may effectively buffer negative effects of adolescent social, school, and psychological difficulties, particularly of an externalizing nature. However, since individual socioemotional well-being has traditionally been neglected in Chinese collectivistic culture, adolescent internalizing problems such as depressed feelings have not received adequate attention from professionals and the public.     

A life course model of education and alcohol use

Working from a life course perspective, this study examined the paradoxical association between academic status and drinking across the transition to young adulthood with multilevel modeling and a nationally representative sample of young people from the Add Health data project (n = 6,308). Taking academically advanced courses in high school was associated with lower rates of current drinking and binge drinking during high school (grades 9-12) but higher rates of both after high school (age range: 20-26). This positive longitudinal association between academic status and drinking was explained partly, but not completely, by educational, family, and work circumstances in young adulthood. The association was less likely to occur among students who attended high schools in which high achievement was the norm. Thus, the association between academic status and drinking behavior reverses across the transition to young adulthood, especially in certain types of peer environments within the educational system.     

Substance Use,Distress, and Adolescent School Networks

This study examined the associations of substance use, psychological distress, and mental health services receipt with the structure and content of adolescent school‐based networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we found that substance use was associated with receiving more, but making fewer, peer nominations. It also was associated with less favorable network characteristics, such as low GPA. Services receipt was associated with receiving and making fewer nominations, less favorable network characteristics, and a lower likelihood of reciprocated best friendships. Psychological distress had fewer significant associations. All associations were modest in magnitude. Our results suggest the importance of considering multiple indicators of socioemotional problems and multiple dimensions of social networks in research on adolescent peer relations.     

WHITE ENROLLMENT IN NONPUBLIC SCHOOLS, PUBLIC SCHOOL RACIAL COMPOSITION, AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE

This research note presents preliminary research into the relationship between the racial composition of public schools in school districts and the percentages of white students in nonpublic schools in those districts. Specifically, we ask two questions: Is the enrollment of whites in non‐public schools associated with minority predominance in public schools? Is there an association between the enrollment of whites outside of the public school system and the academic performance of students in the public school system? Using two‐ and three‐level hierarchical linear models, we find that school districts that have more whites in nonpublic schools tend to contain public schools with larger percentages of minority students. Further, at both the school and individual levels, achievement test scores tend to be lower in districts in which white students tend to be enrolled outside of the public school system. In addition, the achievement gap between white and minority students tends to be greater in districts with relatively more students in nonpublic schools. These findings are consistent with the argument that the withdrawal of white students from the public school system is negatively related to academic achievement because it tends to concentrate minority students in public schools.     

School students' views on school councils and daily life at school

This article reports a survey conducted in schools in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during 1997–8 with 2,272 students aged seven to 17 years. The 24‐page booklet questionnaire included six groups of questions about school councils. The question of whether pupils who have a council see it as effective was cross‐tabulated with a range of other questions, in order to examine associations between students' views about their school councils with their views on other aspects of school. About half the students reported that they had a school council. Of these, the ones who thought their council was effective generally had positive views about their school's social and academic activities, whereas the ones who said their council was ineffective generally had more negative attitudes. Some schools find that creating an effective school council can considerably improve standards of behaviour, but this process has to involve further changes in systems and relationships in the school. Simply introducing a token council can increase students' scepticism. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How School Contexts Shape the Relations Among Adolescents’ Beliefs,Peer Victimization,and Depressive Symptoms

The present research examined how school contexts shape the extent to which beliefs about the potential for change (implicit theories) interact with social adversity to predict depressive symptoms. A preregistered multilevel regression analysis using data from 6,237 ninth‐grade adolescents in 25 U.S. high schools showed a three‐way interaction: Implicit theories moderated the associations between victimization and depressive symptoms only in schools with high levels of school‐level victimization, but not in schools with low victimization levels. In high‐victimization schools, adolescents who believed that people cannot change (an entity theory of personality) were more depressed when they were victimized more frequently. Thus, the mental health correlates of adolescents’ implicit theories depend on both personal experiences and the norms in the context.     

A multi-level analysis of school racial composition and ecological correlates of academic success

Current policy and practice interventions have failed to address disparities in academic success by race/ethnicity or socio-economic status. In addition, as policy interventions to prevent racially segregated schools have stalled, progress toward reducing these achievement gaps has also slowed. This exploratory study employs multi-level modeling to examine how risk and protective factors in students' schools, homes, peer groups, and neighborhoods relate to behavior and academic performance. We examine whether these relationships depend on the racial composition of the school and, in particular, the concentration of African American students in schools. The findings indicate that protective school, home, peer group, and neighborhood environments characterized by social support and safety are associated with positive academic outcomes and behavior. Students attending more segregated schools in which the majority of students are African American report worse behavioral and academic outcomes than students in other schools, even when controlling for other important dimensions of the school environment, school climate, school safety, and poverty. In addition, school racial composition shapes how key protective factors relate to grades.     

The Relationship between High School Sector and Educational Success: Focusing on the Social Background of Private High School Students

This study investigates the influence of high school sector on educational success in Japan. A range of previous research on disparities among high schools has revealed that high school rank (based on the academic ability of pupils, etc.) originated from the democratization of high school. However, given that the democratization of high school is supported by private high schools, high school sector may become a factor for high school ranking. The data used for the analysis are the 2005 National Survey of Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) in Japan. The results indicate that students who enter private high schools have lower academic ability than students who enter public high schools. By contrast, private high school students have greater educational success than public high school students. Moreover, this study reveals that private high school students are generally from a higher social class than public high school students. Given that the use of entrance examinations for private junior high schools has been increasing since the 1990s, in the future, the effect of private schools on educational success may become stronger in not only high schools but also junior high schools. This study thus emphasizes the importance of paying greater attention to the relationship between educational success and the private and public school sectors.     

Polish complementary schools in Iceland and England

Since 2004, the opening of labour markets has spurred a considerable number of Poles to emigrate e.g. to Iceland and England. Families with school age children have had the challenge of adapting to foreign environments and school systems. Polish complementary schools have played an important, albeit ambivalent, role in this process. Through focus group interviews with students in Polish complementary schools in one city in Iceland and one city in England, we gathered information showing common threads between both schools as well as differences in their structure, role, origin and the student motivation to participate. Saturday schools abroad are considered to be less demanding by students than regular schools back in Poland, but more so than regular Icelandic/English schools, which many rate as unsatisfactory in terms of their academic development. The tension between the need for freedom and high expectations for the academic outcome of education influences student opinions, not only about schooling, but also about the host society.     

Mitigating the effect of family poverty on academic and behavioral outcomes: The role of school climate in middle and high school

The persistent achievement gap between students from poor families and their peers calls for research that examines risk factors associated with poverty and strategies for promoting resilience. Research demonstrates the impact of school climate on behavior and academic achievement, especially in high-poverty schools. The present study examines associations between family poverty, social supports, students' perceptions of school climate, behavior, and grades. Poverty is associated with poor grades and behavior, while positive perceptions of school climate are associated with positive grades and behavior. Perceptions of school climate moderate the association between poverty and behavior, such that students from poor families who perceive a positive school climate exhibit similar behaviors to their peers from higher income families. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.     

Interparental Conflict and Adolescents' Romantic Relationship Conflict

This study examined associations between interparental conflict and adolescents' romantic relationship conflict. High school seniors ( N =183) who lived with married parents completed questionnaires about their parents' marriage and their own romantic relationships. A subset of 88 adolescents was also observed interacting with their romantic partners. Adolescents' perceptions and appraisals of interparental conflict were related to the amount of conflict in romantic relationship and adolescents' conflict styles. Adolescents' appraisals of interparental conflict (i.e., self-blame, perceived threat) moderated many of the associations between interparental conflict and conflict behavior with romantic partners. The patterns of moderated effects differed by gender. These findings suggest that the meanings boys and girls ascribe to interparental conflict are important for understanding how family experiences contribute to the development of romantic relationships.     

STUDENTS WHO CHOOSE AND THE SCHOOLS THEY LEAVE: Examining Participation in Intradistrict Transfers

Data from one urban school district is analyzed to examine equity‐based arguments about school choice as they pertain to intradistrict transfer policies. We specifically examine which factors influence the propensity for parents to participate in choice, and how choice schools differ from the schools that students are zoned to attend. We find that advantaged and disadvantaged parents make similar choices in that they are both likely to choose more affluent schools with better academic records than the schools they are zoned to attend. However, these choices operate in different spheres, as advantaged parents choose the most affluent schools with the best academic records, and disadvantaged parents choose away from the least affluent schools with the worst academic records to schools that are slightly better.     

Variations in network boundary and type: A study of adolescent peer influences

This study compares variation in network boundary and network type on network indicators such as degree and estimates of social influences on adolescent substance use. We compare associations between individual use and peer use of tobacco and alcohol when network boundary (e.g., classroom, entire grade in school, and community) and relational type (elicited by asking whom students: (a) are friends with, (b) admire, (c) think will succeed, (d) would like to have a romantic relationship with, and (e) think are popular) are varied. Additionally, we estimate Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) for 232 networks to obtain a homophily estimate for smoking and drinking. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 1707 adolescents in five high schools in one school district in Los Angeles, CA. Results of logistic regression models show that associations were strongest when the boundary condition was least constrained and that associations were stronger for friendship networks than for other ones. Additionally, ERGM estimations show that grade-level friendship networks returned significant homophily effects more frequently than the classroom networks. This study validates existing theoretical approaches to the network study of social influence as well as ways to estimate them. We recommend researchers use as broad a boundary as possible when collecting network data, but observe that for some research purposes more narrow boundaries may be preferred.     

Participation in Athletics and Academic Achievement: A Replication and Extension*

Accumulating research based upon cross-sectional designs has shown relationships between involvement in athletics and academic achievement and aspiration. These results have been interpreted as contrary to Coleman's early conclusion that athletics diverted talent from academic programs. However, more recent study of this relationship in five metropolitan high schools seriously questions the causal interpretation of the effects of high school athletics upon academic achievement. Athletes have higher GPAs at the end of their high school career than at the start, but they do not gain as much as nonathletes over the years of high school, thus experiencing a relative decline in achievement. These results replicate an earlier study in twenty Wisconsin high schools. These similar results obtained in schools separated in time and space support Coleman's original view of the effect of athletics.     

Body mass index, academic achievement, and school context: examining the educational experiences of adolescents at risk of obesity

Reflected self-appraisal suggests that individual functioning is related to the fit between individual characteristics and the norms of their primary contexts. To apply this social psychological concept to the study of obesity, we hypothesized that adolescents at risk of obesity would have lower academic achievement overall than other students, especially in schools in which their weight status was most likely to elicit negative evaluations. Multi-level modeling of nationally representative data revealed that the negative longitudinal association between risk of obesity and achievement was stronger in schools with higher rates of romantic activity and lower average body size among students, two school contexts in which obesity was likely to be stigmatized, but weaker in schools with higher rates of athletic participation, a school context in which such stigmatization was also likely. Additional analyses suggested that this last, unexpected finding reflected a process of niche-picking.     

Moderating Effects of School Ethnic Composition of Acculturative Stress and Academic Outcomes in Latinx Youth

Acculturative stress has demonstrated significant negative relationships with Latinx students' academic outcomes. Framed through interpersonal contact theory, we examined the moderating roles of school ethnic representation (proportion of same-ethnic peers) and school ethnic diversity (proportion of different ethnic groups in student body) in the relationship between acculturative stress and both academic self-efficacy and school belonging. A sample of 190 Latinx youth (14–18 years old) completed measures of acculturative stress and school functioning, and they provided the name and location of their high school to facilitate calculation of school ethnic composition. Both ethnic representation and ethnic diversity moderated relationships between English Competency Pressure (ECP), a specific form of acculturative stress, and academic-self efficacy. School ethnic diversity also interacted with ECP to predict school belonging. Negative relationships between ECP and academic self-efficacy or school belonging only emerged for students in schools with very low ethnic diversity. In contrast, ECP was significantly negatively related to academic self-efficacy only for students in schools with the highest ethnic representation. These findings add complexity to the discussion of how school context matters for Latinx students' academic performance.     

Schools,Peers, and Prejudice in Adolescence

Adolescents' perceptions of the prejudice in their social environments can factor into their developmental outcomes. The degree to which others in the environment perceive such prejudice—regardless of adolescents' own perceptions—also matters by shedding light on the contextual climate in which adolescents spend their daily lives. Drawing on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study revealed that school‐wide perceptions of peer prejudice, which tap into the interpersonal climate of schools, appeared to be particularly risky for adolescents' academic achievement. In contrast, adolescents' own perceptions of peer prejudice at schools were associated with their feelings of alienation in school. Importantly, these patterns did not vary substantially by several markers of vulnerability to social stigmatization.     

Drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking patterns

The current study focused on the associations between drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking behavior in a representative sample of 553 Dutch adolescents and adults. Data were gathered by means of self-report questionnaires and a 14-days drinking diary. A model was postulated in which negative expectancies and self-efficacy were directly associated with drinking, and in which drinking motives mediated the associations between positive expectancies, and drinking. The findings of multivariate analyses showed that drinking motives were related to general indicators of drinking and to drinking levels in specific situations. Furthermore, self-efficacy was moderately related to all drinking variables. Negative expectancies were related to general drinking variables but hardly to drinking in specific situations. Positive expectancies were hardly related to drinking in multivariate analyses and therefore mediation models could not be tested. No systematic moderator effects were apparent for age and gender on the associations between drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking.     

Relationship of work hours with selected health behaviors and academic progress among a college student cohort

Approximately 57% of college students work while attending school. Health risks related to working while in college have not been widely studied. OBJECTIVE: The authors' purpose in this study was to determine associations between hours worked, binge drinking, sleep habits, and academic performance among a college student cohort. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The authors randomly selected a sample of 1,700 undergraduates from a southeastern US university and mailed to them a survey requesting a variety of self-reported health behaviors and hours worked. A total of 903 completed questionnaires were received, indicating a response rate of 57.3%. RESULTS: Binge drinking, less sleep, and lower academic performance were significantly associated with working 20 or more hours per week. Those variables were not associated with working fewer than 20 hours per week. CONCLUSIONS: Although administrators and others in higher education are aware of the impact of economics on a school's ability to operate, they may not be aware of the impact on students' health.