Prediction of children's academic competence from their effortful control, relationships, and classroom participation.

The authors examined the relations among children's effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence with a sample of 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 264). Parents and children reported on children's effortful control, and teachers and children reported on children's school relationships and classroom participation. Children's grade point averages (GPAs) and absences were obtained from school-issued report cards. Significant positive correlations existed between effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence. Consistent with expectations, the teacher-child relationship, social competence, and classroom participation partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in GPA from the beginning to the end of the school year. The teacher-child relationship and classroom participation also partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in school absences across the year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Striving for social dominance over peers: The implications for academic adjustment during early adolescence.

This study investigated the proposal that social dominance goals are an important, but overlooked, aspect of social goals for young adolescents' academic adjustment. Self-reports of social goals (dominance, intimacy, and popularity goals) early in the school year were used to predict subsequent engagement (self-reports and peer nominations of effort toward school work and disruptive behavior) and achievement (i.e., grades) when students were in 6th grade (N = 718) and again after the transition to middle school when students were in 7th grade (N = 656; 52% African American and 48% White; 52% female and 48% male). In line with hypotheses, social dominance goals were associated with maladaptive forms of engagement and low achievement in 6th and 7th grades. For intimacy goals, relations were more limited, but when found, these goals were associated with adaptive forms of engagement in 6th and 7th grades. Popularity goals were not generally associated with engagement or achievement. The exception was 6th-grade African American girls, for whom popularity goals were associated with maladaptive engagement, (i.e., low effort, high disruptive behavior, and low peer nominations for trying hard and getting good grades). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer acceptance and school-related variables in an integrated junior high school.

Interracial peer acceptance at the junior high school level was related to 9 predictor variables: grade point average (GPA), IQ, attendance, self-concept of academic ability, sex, race, age, years in the school, and classroom racial composition. 322 7th- and 8th-grade students from predominantly lower-middle-class backgrounds were administered modified Syracuse Scales of Human Relations, measuring academic and social acceptance. Analysis of variance results show that White Ss slightly preferred Whites for the satisfaction of their academic and social needs. However, with stepwise multiple regression analysis, race was not a significant predictor variable for academic or social acceptance by White Ss. GPA and sex were the most prominent predictors of acceptance. Black Ss accepted both Black peers and White peers equally for academic interaction but preferred Blacks for social interaction. Race was a significant predictor variable for academic and social acceptance by Black Ss. However, race was secondary to GPA and/or sex for academic acceptance by Black females and Black males. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimethod comparison of similarity in school adjustment of siblings and unrelated children.

Examined similarities among 45 sibling pairs in Grades 2–5 in their social and academic adaptation to the school setting. Measures included teacher ratings and ranking of academic skills, social behavior, and peer acceptance; peer sociometric ratings; and direct observations on the playground with peers and in the classroom with teachers and peers. Comparisons were made with randomly selected, unrelated S pairs matched on sex, grade, and classroom. Significant correlations were found only among sibling pairs on peer ratings of social preference, teachers' judgments of academic competence, popularity, social behavior and school adjustment, positive behavior with peers on the playground, and teachers' disapproving behavior in the classroom. Results underscore the need for more multiagent and multimethod research on sibling concordant–discordant adjustment regardless of theoretical orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of children's depressive symptoms, self-perceptions, and cognitive distortions about the self.

This longitudinal study examined how depressive symptoms relate to children's self-perceptions and to estimates of children's cognitive distortions about the self in a nonclinical sample of children who were followed from 4th grade (n=248) through 6th grade (n=227). Report card grades measured children's academic competence, and teachers' ratings of children's level of peer acceptance at school indicated social acceptance. Self-reported depressive symptoms predicted a change in children's negative views of the self. Moreover, the self-perceptions of children who exhibited more symptoms of depression appeared to reflect an underestimation of their actual competence. Children's negative self-perceptions and underestimations about the self were not associated with a subsequent change in depressive symptoms. The implications of the findings for cognitive theories of depression and future research with this population are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of global self-worth and academic performance among regular education, learning disabled, and continuation high school students

While academic performance and achievement motivation among elementary school students have received considerable attention, far less is known with respect to adolescents. The primary purpose of this project was to examine the ability of measures of perceived competence, control, and autonomy support to predict self-worth and academic performance with a group of regular education, learning disabled, and continuation high school students. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that indices of perceived competence, control, and autonomy support were significant predictors of self-worth and grade point average. Additionally, school status (i.e., regular education and continuation) and a depression variable were significant predictors in the regression model for academic performance. The results highlight the need for continued empirical investigation into issues surrounding the academic performance and achievement motivation of adolescents.     

Trajectories of school engagement during adolescence: Implications for grades, depression, delinquency, and substance use.

Using longitudinal data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, the authors assessed 1,977 adolescents across Grades 5 to 8 to determine if there were distinctive developmental paths for behavioral and emotional school engagement; if these paths varied in relation to sex, race/ethnicity, and family socioeconomic status (SES); and whether links existed between trajectories of school engagement and grades, depression, substance use, and delinquency. Four trajectories for behavioral school engagement and four trajectories of emotional engagement were identified using a semiparametric mixture model. These trajectories were distinct with regard to initial levels of and changes in engagement, as well as to their shapes. Trajectories varied in regard to sex, SES, and race/ethnicity. Different trajectories of behavioral and emotional engagement were linked to grades, depression, delinquency, and substance use. Directions for future research and application are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age appropriateness and motivation, engagement, and performance in high school: Effects of age within cohort, grade retention, and delayed school entry.

The present study examined the relative salience of age within cohort, grade retention, and delayed school entry (3 dimensions of age appropriateness) in 3,684 high school students' academic motivation, engagement, and performance. Structural equation modeling revealed that after the effects of demographic characteristics and grade retention were taken into account, little significant variance was explained by the linear effects of age within cohort. However, subsequent modeling incorporating nonlinear effects showed that the markedly older-for-cohort students (i.e., over the "standard" 12-month age range for a given cohort) and delayed-entry students (i.e., academic "red shirts") experienced some academic disadvantage in motivation, engagement, and performance while the age-appropriate students (particularly the younger ones) fared best. Over and above demographic and age-within-cohort effects, the effects of grade retention were consistently negative. Taken together, data suggest that there appear to be little or no motivation, engagement, or performance advantages to being markedly older-for-cohort, having delayed-entry status, or being retained in a grade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reputation for success (or failure): The association of peer academic reputations with academic self-concept, effort, and performance across the upper elementary grades.

The associations between children's academic reputations among peers and their academic self-concept, effort, and performance were examined in a longitudinal study of 427 students initially enrolled in Grades 3, 4, and 5. Assessments were completed in the fall and spring of 2 consecutive school years and in the fall of a 3rd school year. Peer academic reputation (PAR) correlated moderately strongly with teacher-rated skills and changed over time as a function of grades earned at the prior assessment. Path-analytic models indicated bidirectional associations between PAR and academic self-concept, teacher-rated academic effort, and grade point average. There was little evidence that changes in self-concept mediated the association between PAR and effort and GPA or that changes in effort mediated the association between PAR and GPA. Results suggest that peers may possess unique information about classmates' academic functioning, that children's PARs are psychologically meaningful, and that these reputations may serve as a useful marker of processes that forecast future academic engagement and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of grade retention in first grade on psychosocial outcomes.

In a 4-year longitudinal study, the authors investigated effects of retention in first grade on children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors; social acceptance; and behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement. From a large multiethnic sample (n = 784) of children below the median on literacy at school entrance, 124 retained children were matched with 251 promoted children on the basis of propensity scores (probability of being retained in first grade estimated from 72 baseline variables). Relative to promoted children, retained children were found to benefit from retention in both the short and longer terms with respect to decreased teacher-rated hyperactivity, decreased peer-rated sadness and withdrawal, and increased teacher-rated behavioral engagement. Retained children had a short-term increase in mean peer-rated liking and school belongingness relative to promoted children, but this advantage showed a substantial decrease in the longer term. Retention had a positive short-term effect on children's perceived school belonging and a positive longer term effect on perceived academic self-efficacy. Retention may bestow advantages in the short-term, but longer term detrimental effects on social acceptance may lead to the documented longer term negative effects of retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic growth curve trajectoiries from 1st grade to 12th grade: Effects of multiple social risk factors and preschool child factors.

This study examined the main and interactive effects of multiple social risk factors and the preschool child factors of IQ and mental health on students' academic trajectories from 1st grade to l2th grade. A multiple risk score summarizing 10 environmental risk factors was calculated at 4 years of age for 145 families. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that high-risk students had lower grades and more absences from 1st grade to 12th grade than did low-risk students. Significant interactions between risk and child factors for students' grade point average (GPA) revealed that child factors had significant effects only for low-risk students. Higher IQ and better mental health improved the GPA trajectories of low-risk children but did not influence the GPA trajectories of high-risk children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer rejection and unpopularity: Associations with GPAs across the transition to middle school.

The unique effects of peer rejection and unpopularity on student GPAs across the transition from elementary school to middle school were investigated with a sample of 901 students followed longitudinally from 4th grade through 8th grade. Two types of longitudinal models, a cross-lagged panel model and a piecewise growth model, were used, with peer-nominated rejection and unpopularity and GPAs derived from school records. The cross-lagged panel model assessed the over-time directionality of the association between GPAs and peer status. It revealed that peer rejection preceded lower GPAs within 4th grade and across the transition from elementary to middle school, whereas lower GPAs predicted greater peer rejection from 4th to 5th grade. In contrast, unpopularity predicted higher GPAs across the transition from elementary to middle school. The piecewise growth model demonstrated that student GPAs declined in middle school and that peer rejection was associated with lower concurrent GPAs in both school settings, whereas unpopularity was associated with higher concurrent GPAs in middle school. Peer rejection and unpopularity in the last grade of elementary school were also predictive of GPA in the first grade of middle school above and beyond the effects of concurrent rejection and unpopularity. The results demonstrate how 2 forms of low peer status are associated with GPAs during this period of significant change in the social and academic lives of students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing school success through partnership-based family competency training: Experimental study of long-term outcomes.

An expanding body of research suggests an important role for parent or family competency training in children's social-emotional learning and related school success. This article summarizes a test of a longitudinal model examining partnership-based family competency training effects on academic success in a general population. Specifically, it examines indirect effects of the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) on school engagement in 8th grade and academic success in the 12th grade, through direct ISFP effects on intervention-targeted outcomes--parenting competencies and student substance-related risk--in 6th grade. Twenty-two rural schools were randomly assigned to either ISFP or a minimal-contact control group; data were collected from 445 families. Following examination of the equivalence of the measurement model across group and time, a structural equation modeling approach was used to test the hypothesized model and corresponding hypothesized structural paths. Significant effects of the ISFP were found on proximal intervention outcomes, intermediate school engagement, and the academic success of high school seniors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is extracurricular participation associated with beneficial outcomes? Concurrent and longitudinal relations.

The authors examined the relations between participation in a range of high school extracurricular contexts and developmental outcomes in adolescence and young adulthood among an economically diverse sample of African American and European American youths. In general, when some prior self-selection factors were controlled, 11th graders' participation in school clubs and organized sports was associated with concurrent indicators of academic and psychological adjustment and with drug and alcohol use. In addition, participation in 11th grade school clubs and prosocial activities was associated with educational status and civic engagement at 1 year after high school. A few of the concurrent and longitudinal relations between activity participation and development were moderated by race and gender. Finally, breadth of participation, or number of activity contexts, was associated with positive academic, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and environmental influences on academic achievement trajectories during adolescence.

Most studies have considered the effects of particular characteristics on academic achievement individually, which means that little is known about how they function together. Using the population-based Minnesota Twin Family Study, the authors investigated the effects of child academic engagement (interest, involvement, effort), IQ, depression, externalizing behavior, and family environmental risk on academic achievement (reported school grades) from ages 11 through 17. Hierarchical linear growth curve modeling showed main effects on initial reported Grades for all variables, and IQ mitigated the deleterious effects of family risk and externalizing. Only engagement affected change in Grades through adolescence. Influences on initial Grades were strongly genetically influenced, associated primarily with IQ, engagement, and externalizing behavior. Shared environmental influences on initial Grades linked engagement, IQ, and family risk. Genetic influences on change in Grades were substantial, but they were not associated with the academic, family risk, and mental health covarying factors. These results indicate that age 11 achievement and change in achievement through adolescence show systematic patterns and document the existence of individual differences in the commonly shared developmental experience of adapting to the school environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maltreatment, competency deficits, and risk for academic and behavioral maladjustment.

Maltreatment was predicted to negatively affect children's academic and behavioral adjustment through the creation of deficits in academic engagement, social competencies, ego resiliency, and ego control. Teachers' comprehensive evaluations, school records, and camp counselors' ratings were obtained for 229 socioeconomically disadvantaged children (ages 5–12 years), 146 of whom had been maltreated. Maltreated children showed less academic engagement, more social skills deficits, and lower ego resiliency than nonmaltreated comparison children. Maltreated children manifested multiple forms of academic risk and showed more externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. The effects of maltreatment on academic maladjustment were partially mediated by academic engagement, whereas maltreatment's effects on behavior problems were mediated fully by social competencies and ego resiliency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social status of aggressive students across contexts: The role of classroom status hierarchy, academic achievement, and grade.

This study tested the effects of 5 classroom contextual features on the social status (perceived popularity and social preference) that peers accord to aggressive students in late elementary school, including classroom peer status hierarchy (whether within-classroom differences in popularity are large or small), classroom academic level, and grade level as the main predictors of interest as well as classroom aggression and ethnic composition as controls. Multilevel analyses were conducted on an ethnically diverse sample of 968 fourth- and fifth-graders from 46 classrooms in 9 schools. Associations between aggression and status varied greatly from one classroom to another. Aggressive students were more popular and better liked in classrooms with higher levels of peer status hierarchy. Aggressive students had higher social status in Grade 5 than in Grade 4 and lower social preference in classrooms of higher academic level. Classroom aggression and ethnic composition did not moderate aggression–status associations. Limitations and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A performance model for academic achievement in early adolescent boys.

Tests a model for conduct-related school failure in young adolescent boys. In this model, family characteristics and child antisocial behavior serve as predictors of school adjustment and academic performance. Ss were 206 youths and their families, followed from the 4th through 8th grades. Results indicated that low parental academic achievement was associated with ineffective discipline practices and child antisocial behavior in the 6th grade. Ineffective discipline had a direct and negative effect on boys' 7th-grade academic engagement. Boys' academic engagement, in turn, had a direct and positive effect on 8th grade academic achievement. A smaller direct effect of parental achievement on child achievement was also found. Results are discussed in terms of research on parental influence on academic success and life span models of the development of antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sense of relatedness as a factor in children's academic engagement and performance.

Children's sense of relatedness is vital to their academic motivation from 3rd to 6th grade. Children's (n = 641) reports of relatedness predicted changes in classroom engagement over the school year and contributed over and above the effects of perceived control. Regression and cumulative risk analyses revealed that relatedness to parents, teachers, and peers each uniquely contributed to students' engagement, especially emotional engagement. Girls reported higher relatedness than boys, but relatedness to teachers was a more salient predictor of engagement for boys. Feelings of relatedness to teachers dropped from 5th to 6th grade, but the effects of relatedness on engagement were stronger for 6th graders. Discussion examines theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of relatedness as a key predictor of children's academic motivation and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attachment representations: Longitudinal relations to school behavior and academic competency in middle childhood and adolescence.

A longitudinal study examined children's (N?=?108) attachment representations in relation to behavior and academic competency at school during middle childhood and adolescence. Attachment representations were assessed from children's responses to a separation story at age 7 years. At ages 9, 12, and 15, teachers rated children on four dimensions of school behavior: attention–participation, extroversion, disruptive behavior, and insecurity about self. Children's grade point average (GPA) in school was also examined. Children's attachment representations (secure vs. insecure) did not predict either disruptive behavior or extroversion, but they were significantly linked to attention–participation, insecurity about self, and GPA, with secure representations being associated with more favorable outcomes. The study controlled for social class, gender, IQ, perspective-taking ability, and prior competency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)