Academic resilience of immigrant youth in Greek schools: Personal and family resources

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined, first, whether and how immigrant youth’s personal and family resources account for individual differences in their academic achievement, and second, whether social risks and immigrant status further contribute to academic achievement after controlling for these resources. The sample consisted of 300 middle school adolescents, 73 students from Albania and 227 Greeks (mean age 13.9 years), enrolled in Greek urban middle schools. Three risks (immigrant status, family social adversity and negative life events), two personal resources (locus of control and self-efficacy beliefs) and four family resources (parental school involvement, family support, father and mother education) for academic achievement were included. Each of these personal and family resources, separately, predicted higher academic achievement, equally for immigrant and nonimmigrant youth. Family social adversity, but not negative life events, continued to predict academic achievement, over and above personal and family resources. Finally, immigrant status continued to predict academic achievement over and above resources and other social risks. The results highlight the important link between the family context and youth’s personal agency, on the one hand, and doing well in school, on the other. However, they also reveal that social and immigrant status, two societal-level, social position variables that may also involve experiences that are outside the control of the family and youth, present further risks to youth’s academic achievement.     

Academic achievement in first-year Portuguese college students: the role of academic preparation and learning strategies

This paper analyses the role of academic preparation and learning strategies in the prediction of first-year Portuguese college students' academic achievement, considering students' sex and academic field attended. A sample of 445 first-year college students (68.5% female) from the University of Minho (25.8% enrolled in economics, 35.3% in science/technology, and 38.9% in humanities degrees) participated in the study. Students answered a questionnaire on learning strategies in the classroom at the end of the first semester, which consisted of 44 items organized in five dimensions: comprehensive approach, surface approach, personal competency perceptions, intrinsic motivation, and organization of study activities. Academic achievement (grade point average at the end of first year) and academic preparation (students' higher education access mark) were obtained through the academic records of the university. Results showed that academic preparation was the strongest predictor of first-year academic achievement, and only marginal additional variance was explained by learning strategies as assessed by the self-reported questionnaire. There were sex and academic field differences, but these variables do not seem strong enough to affect the results, although the different percentages of variance captured by each model and the different weights associated to higher education access mark, stimulate the use of these and/or other personal and contextual variables when analysing the phenomenon.     

Degrees of resilience: profiling psychological resilience and prospective academic achievement in university inductees

University inductees may be increasingly vulnerable to stressors during transition into higher education (HE), requiring psychological resilience to achieve academic success. This study aimed to profile inductees' resilience and to investigate links to prospective end of year academic outcomes. Scores for resilience were based on a validated Connor Davison Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) drawn from 1534 inductees in a single UK university. A four-stage analysis revealed that incremental resilience was more facilitative of females' prospective academic attainment, but less functional and more convoluted for males. This large, distinctive study has implications for student support practices and highlights that the relationship between resilience and academic achievement requires further consideration in HE.     

小学生心理素质与学业成绩的关系

运用《瑞文标准推理测验》和自编的《小学生心理素质问卷》对1247名小学生作心理素质团体测试。利用方差分析和聚类分析,探讨小学生心理素质与学业成绩的关系。结果表明:(1)总体上,学业成绩高分组心理素质优于学业成绩中等组和低分组,学业成绩中等组优于学业成绩低分组。(2)分年级看,不同年级不同学业成绩组的小学生在心理素质因素上的差异有不同。(3)学业成绩高分组学生主要分布在心理素质较好的水平层次,学业成绩中等组主要分布在心理素质中等水平层次上,而学业成绩低分组主要分布在心理素质不好的水平层次。     

学业焦虑在亲密同伴之间相互影响的纵向研究

采用逐日测量的短期纵向研究对7个高中班级107对亲密同伴在一周内的学业焦虑进行测量,利用HLM检验学业焦虑在亲密同伴之间的相互影响。研究结果表明,在控制测量时间层级、个体层级和同伴层级控制变量之后,同伴学业焦虑对个体随后一天的学业焦虑存在显著的正影响。因此,同伴学业焦虑既是刺激个体产生学业焦虑的诱因,个体学业焦虑反过来又能促进同伴学业焦虑的进一步发展。本研究结果有助于进一步理解学业焦虑的人际成因和班级学业气氛的形成和发展。     

Profiles of Student Perceptions of School Climate: Relations with Risk Behaviors and Academic Outcomes

School climate has been linked to a variety of positive student outcomes, but there may be important within‐school differences among students in their experiences of school climate. This study examined within‐school heterogeneity among 47,631 high school student ratings of their school climate through multilevel latent class modeling. Student profiles across 323 schools were generated on the basis of multiple indicators of school climate: disciplinary structure, academic expectations, student willingness to seek help, respect for students, affective and cognitive engagement, prevalence of teasing and bullying, general victimization, bullying victimization, and bullying perpetration. Analyses identified four meaningfully different student profile types that were labeled positive climate, medium climate‐low bullying, medium climate‐high bullying, and negative climate. Contrasts among these profile types on external criteria revealed meaningful differences for race, grade‐level, parent education level, educational aspirations, and frequency of risk behaviors.     

Meaning-making and resilience: case studies of a multifaceted process

Explanations of meaning-making generally prioritise intrapersonal processes. Although making meaning is an intrapersonal process, it is also strongly influenced by person-context interactions and cultural positioning. Nevertheless, the meaning-making literature has paid scant attention to how such interactivity and positioning shape meaning-making. In this article, we highlight the compound character of resilience-promoting meaning-making. To this end, we recount the instrumental cases of Ntando's and Sipho's resilience. The accounts of these black South African students’ positive adjustment to adversity richly illustrate how their lived experiences of a social ecology stimulated multifaceted meaning-making processes. In particular, Ntando's and Sipho's interpersonal experiences and Africentric worldviews gave rise to and/or moderated positive re-appraisal, revisioned goals, purposeful direction, application of spiritual beliefs, identification of benefits, sense-making and reflective problem-solving. Although both their stories drive an understanding of meaning-making as a helix-like process with inter-, intrapersonal and cultural strands, the differences in their accounts of meaning-making stimulate the need for deeper exploration into the complexity of resilience-promoting meaning-making processes.     

The impact of different sources of social support on academic performance: Intervening factors and mediated pathways in the case of master's thesis

IntroductionAcademic failure and dropout are pervasive challenges at all levels of the education system. Research so far pointed out different aspects of this large phenomenon. On the one hand, some scholars have argued that social support is a key factor to foster learning and persistence. On the other hand, some other scholars have rather highlighted the role of student motivation and engagement itself in improving performance on academic tasks. In this article, we tested theoretical models that combine the two approaches in a whole process.AimsWe aimed at clarifying (1) the specific contribution of several sources of perceived social support to academic performance, and (2) the mediation role of motivation and engagement in the relationships between perceived social support and performance.MethodThe sample consisted of 226 last year university students. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the hypothesized associations.ResultsStructural equation modeling analysis revealed that institutional and supervisor support were associated with motivation, which in turn predicted greater behavioral, cognitive and emotional engagement. Further, behavioral engagement was the unique contributor of academic performance at the master's thesis.ConclusionThe results clarify the specific contribution of different sources of perceived social support and underline the importance of the supervisor and the institution. They also underline the importance of considering different sources of perceived social support at the same time. Finally, theoretical assumptions concerning the mediational role of motivation were confirmed.     

Social connectedness,life satisfaction and school engagement: moderating role of ethnic minority status on resilience processes of Roma youth

Abstract

We examined the influence of connectedness on school engagement and life satisfaction among Roma (n = 121) and Bulgarian (n = 143) mainstream adolescents (mean age 15.89, SD = 1.18). A set of measures on family, peer, school and neighbourhood connectedness were administered alongside life satisfaction and school engagement scales. Multigroup path analysis indicated that while the relationship between connectedness, life satisfaction and school engagement was largely the same across groups, the strength of such relationship differed among groups. A closer inspection of the model indicated that when it comes to school engagement, there was a salient difference in the role of different forms of connectedness between Roma and mainstream adolescents. For Roma adolescents, familial connectedness was especially salient for school engagement. The practical and theoretical implications of our findings for strengths and adaptive processes among Roma adolescents in Bulgaria are discussed.     

Graduate school mentoring in clinical,counselling, and experimental academic training programs: an exploratory study

This study focused on graduate student mentoring within clinical, counselling and experimental psychology programs. A nationwide survey of 336 psychology graduate students indicated that counselling students reported higher levels of socioemotional support in their mentoring relationships, as well as higher overall levels of satisfaction, compared with clinical and experimental students. Clinical and experimental students, however, reported higher levels of selected outcome variables, such as research productivity. The relationships between mentoring qualities and several outcome variables were noted and discussed. This study adds to the developing literature concerning graduate student mentoring within professional psychology training programs.     

What my parents make me believe in learning: The role of filial piety in Hong Kong students' motivation and academic achievement

Chinese students are well‐known for their academic excellence. However, studies that explore the underlying mechanism of how cultural factors relate to the motivational process and academic achievement of Chinese students have been limited. This study aimed to examine the role of filial piety in shaping Chinese students' theories of intelligence so as to obtain a clearer understanding of the process by which parent–child connectedness is linked to Chinese students' academic achievement. A sample of 312 university students in Hong Kong were assessed concerning their filial piety beliefs, theories of intelligence and academic achievement. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that different filial piety beliefs relate to students' academic achievement by shaping different theories of intelligence. Reciprocal filial piety beliefs were found to facilitate an incremental view of intelligence, which in turn contributes to students' academic achievement. Authoritarian filial piety beliefs were shown to be associated with an entity view of intelligence, which consequently deteriorates students' academic achievement. Cultural views of motivational processes can shed light on how motivational beliefs are developed as a product of cultural or socialization processes, which, in turn, contribute to students' academic success.     

Engagement in After-School Programs as a Predictor of Social Competence and Academic Performance

Using the experience sampling method, this study examined two questions related to outcomes associated with after‐school programming. First, does the quality of experience in after‐school programs mediate the effect of program participation on social competence and academic performance? Second, among program participants, is the difference in quality of experience when in programs versus other settings after school related to higher social competence and academic performance? Middle school students (N = 196) attending eight programs in three Midwestern states reported a total of 4,970 randomly sampled experiences in and out of after‐school programs during 1 week in the fall and spring of the 2001–2002 academic year. Engagement during after‐school hours partially mediated the relationship between participation in after‐school programs and social competence. In addition, relative perceptions of engagement, challenge, and importance when in after‐school programs compared to elsewhere after school predicted higher English and math grades. Results suggest that the quality of experiences in after‐school programs may be a more important factor than quantity of experiences (i.e., dosage) in predicting positive academic outcomes.     

学校氛围与初中生学业成就:学业情绪的中介和未来取向的调节作用

采用问卷法对1243名初中生进行调查研究,考察了学业情绪在学校氛围与初中生学业成就间的中介效应,以及未来取向对这一中介过程的调节效应。结果发现,（1）在控制了性别、年级、社会经济地位后,学校氛围对学业成就具有正向预测作用;（2）积极低唤醒学业情绪和消极低唤醒学业情绪显著中介学校氛围与学业成就的关系;（3）未来取向显著调节学校氛围对初中生学业成绩的直接路径,以及通过积极低唤醒和消极低唤醒学业情绪影响学业成绩的间接路径;即学校氛围和积极低唤醒学业情绪对学业成绩的影响在低未来取向的青少年群体中更为强烈;而学校氛围对消极低唤醒学业情绪的影响在高未来取向的青少年群体中更为强烈。总之,在学校氛围影响初中生学业成就的过程中,既存在中介效应,又存在调节效应。实际干预时,可以通过改善初中生学业情绪提高初中生的学业成就,未来取向可以进一步调节该过程。     

Reciprocal effects of student-teacher and student-peer relatedness: Effects on academic self efficacy

This study investigated the reciprocal effects between teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) and two dimensions of classroom peer relatedness, peer liking and peer academic reputation (PAR), across three years in elementary school and the effect of both TSRQ and the peer relatedness dimensions on academic self efficacy. Participants were 695 relatively low achieving, ethnically diverse students recruited into the longitudinal study when they were in the first grade. Measures of TSRQ and peer relatedness were assessed in years/grades 2-4. Peer liking and PAR were moderately correlated with each other at each time period. As expected, peer liking and TSRQ exhibited bidirectional effects across the three years. Year 3 TSRQ had an effect on Year 4 PAR, but PAR did not have an effect on TSRQ at either time interval. In an additional analysis, Year 4 PAR mediated the effect of Year 3 TSRQ on Year 5 academic self efficacy. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed.     

听障大学生社会支持对学业自我效能感的影响：心理韧性的中介作用

为探讨听障大学生社会支持对学业自我效能感的影响,以及心理韧性的中介作用,对342名听障大学生进行问卷调查。结果发现,听障大学生的学业自我效能感处于中低水平,社会支持和心理韧性处于中等偏上水平;心理韧性在社会支持对学业自我效能感的影响中起部分中介作用。结果表明：社会支持既可以直接影响听障大学生的学业自我效能感,也可以通过心理韧性的中介作用间接影响听障大学生的学业自我效能感。     

Towards an understanding of performative allyship: Definition,antecedents and consequences

Adding rainbow filters in support of LGBTQ+ movements or changing profile pictures to black squares to show support for the BlackLivesMatter movement have become common contemporary expressions of solidarity. However, these actions are often criticized as being ‘performative’ and falling short of genuine social change. Despite its popularity, little is known about what performative allyship is and what its pitfalls or potential benefits may be. We review the existing psychological literature on intergroup relations and allyship to provide a definition and framework for studying performative allyship and its consequences for social change. We propose that the term performative allyship refers to easy and costless actions that often do not challenge the status quo and are motivated primarily by the desire to accrue personal benefits. The literature suggests that engaging in performative allyship may have a negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of disadvantaged groups, but also on allies. We discuss negative and some positive consequences of engagement in performative allyship on disadvantaged groups, allies and society at large and provide directions for future research.     

高中生羞怯与学业适应的关系:学业求助的中介作用

本研究采用中学生羞怯量表、学业求助量表及学业适应量表对青岛两所普通中学625名高中生进行调查,分析高中生羞怯、学业求助与学业适应之间的关系,并探讨学业求助是否在高中生羞怯与学业适应之间起中介作用。结果发现:(1)羞怯可以显著预测高中生的学业适应;(2)学业求助态度在羞怯与学业适应间起部分中介作用;(3)羞怯部分通过学业求助态度经学业求助行为的多重中介作用影响学业适应。     

Measurement invariance of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students: A study across secondary school pupils and university students

School engagement is a multidimensional construct characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption towards academic work that is related to school achievement. This study aimed to examine the measurement invariance of a school engagement measure – the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Students (UWES-S) – across secondary school pupils and university students. Two samples of secondary school pupils (n = 251) and university students (n = 229) were used. The results supported the original three-factor structure (vigour, dedication and absorption) of the UWES-S instead of a two- or a one-factor structure in both samples. Evidence for the metric and scalar invariance of the measure across secondary school pupils and university students was also found. The university sample had higher scores in vigour and absorption but not in dedication. These findings demonstrate that the UWES-S can be used for developmental studies where school engagement and its relation with other variables needs to be compared across distinct educational levels.