ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: High school dropout represents an important public health issue. This study assessed the 3 distinct dimensions of student engagement in high school and examined the relationships ...between the nature and course of such experiences and later dropout.
METHODS: We administered questionnaires to 13,330 students (44.7% boys) from 69 high schools in the province of Quebec (Canada). During 3 consecutive high school years, students reported their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement to school. Information on later dropout status was obtained through official records.
RESULTS: Although many adolescents remained highly engaged in high school, one third reported changes, especially decreases in rule compliance, interest in school, and willingness to learn. Students reporting low engagement or important decrements in behavioral investment from the beginning of high school presented higher risks of later dropout.
CONCLUSION: School‐based interventions should address the multiple facets of high school experiences to help adolescents successfully complete their basic schooling. Creating a positive social‐emotional learning environment promises better adolescent achievement and, in turn, will contribute to a healthier lifestyle.
School Readiness and Later Achievement Pagani, Linda S; Fitzpatrick, Caroline; Archambault, Isabelle ...
Developmental psychology,
09/2010, Volume:
46, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We first replicated the data analytic strategy used in
Duncan et al. (2007)
with a population-based data set of French-speaking children from Quebec (Canada). Prospective associations were examined ...between cognitive, attention, and socioemotional characteristics underlying kindergarten school readiness and second grade math, reading, and general achievement. We then extended this school readiness model by including motor skills as an additional element in the prediction equation and expanded the original strategy by including classroom engagement. The Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Preschool Study, featured in Duncan et al., served as the Canadian reference group. In the replication model, kindergarten cognitive and attention characteristics predicted achievement by the end of 2nd grade. Although inconsistent across outcomes, behavioral problems and skills also emerged as predictors of some aspects of later achievement. Coefficients for kindergarten math skills were largest, followed by attention skills, receptive language skills, attention problems, and behavior. Most coefficients resembled those generated in the initial study. In our extension model, fine motor skills added their significant contribution to the prediction of later achievement above and beyond the original key elements of school readiness. Our extension model confirmed prospectively associations between kindergarten cognitive, attention, fine motor, and physical aggression characteristics and later achievement and classroom engagement by the end of 2nd grade. Although they comparatively showed better long-term benefits from stronger early attention skills, girls with less kindergarten cognitive skills were more vulnerable than boys with similar deficits when predicting 2nd grade math.
Research on adolescent well-being has shown that students with depression have an increased risk of facing academic failure, yet few studies have looked at the implications of adolescent depression ...in the process of school dropout. This study examined mediation processes linking depression symptoms, self-perceived academic competence, and self-reported achievement in 7th grade to dropping out of school in later adolescence. We followed 493 (228 girls and 265 boys) French-speaking adolescents from low-socioeconomic-status secondary schools in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) for 6 years. Almost 34% of participants dropped out of school during this period. Findings indicated that self-reported depression symptoms in 7th grade increased the risk of dropping out of school in later adolescence. Structural equation modeling revealed that the predictive relationship between depression symptoms and school dropout was mediated by self-perceptions of academic competence. Current findings provide support for self-perceptions of competence as mediational processes in the relationship between adolescent depression symptoms and early school leaving.
Watching television is a common pastime for very young children. High exposure may negatively influence physical and mental health outcomes. Not much is known about how early exposure relates to ...lifestyle choices in adolescence.
To estimate how toddler televiewing is subsequently associated with lifestyle indicators at adolescence.
Participants are 986 girls and 999 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development birth cohort (Canada). Child self-reports lifestyle habits at age 13 that were linearly regressed on parent-reported televiewing at age 2 while adjusting for potential confounders.
Every 1 h 13 m increase in daily televiewing was prospectively associated with a 8.2% increased risk of unhealthy eating habits (unstandardized b = 0.05; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07), 10.1% decrease in eating breakfast on weekdays (unstandardized b = −0.06; 95% CI, −0.09 to −0.04), 13.3% increase in BMI (unstandardized b = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.50), 4.7% decrease in student engagement (unstandardized b = −0.07; 95% CI, −0.14 to −0.004), and 5.8% increase in concurrent screen time (unstandardized b = 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.11). Post hoc simulations of noncompliance with AAP recommendations support their implementation.
Excessive toddlerhood televiewing was prospectively associated with less optimal health and self-invested behavioral dispositions. Lifestyle habits not only affect metabolic risk but may also influence personal success outcomes. These independent relationships, observed more than a decade later, suggest a need for better parental awareness of the way children invest their limited waking hours could affect their long-term life course trajectories.
•Excessive early televiewing was associated with subsequent risks in adolescence.•Excessive early televiewing was associated with later risk of being overweight.•Excessive early televiewing was associated with later risk of poor eating habits.•Excessive early televiewing was associated with later risk of skipping breakfast.•Excessive early televiewing predicted a later risk of being less engaged at school.
To examine the independent influence of school economic deprivation, social fragmentation, and social cohesion on the likelihood of participating in no physical activity among students.
Data are from ...a large-scale longitudinal study of schools based in disadvantaged communities in Quebec, Canada. Questionnaires were administered every year between 2002 and 2008 among n = 14,924 students aged 12 to 18 from a sample of 70 schools. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted. Multilevel modeling was utilized to account for the clustering of students within schools. Schools were categorized as being low, moderate or high economic deprivation, social fragmentation and social cohesion. Those who indicated that they do no participate in any physical activity during the week were identified as being physically inactive.
In baseline multilevel cross-sectional analyses, adolescents attending schools in the highest (compared to the lowest) levels of socioeconomic deprivation and social fragmentation were more likely to be physically inactive (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.72; and OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 0.98, 1.56, respectively). Conversely, students attending schools with the highest cohesion were less likely to be physically inactive (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.61, 0.99). In longitudinal analysis, physically active students who attended schools with the highest social fragmentation were more likely to become physically inactive over two years (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.09, 2.51).
The school socioeconomic environment appears to be an important contextual influence on participation in no physical activity among adolescents. Following adolescents beyond two years is necessary to determine if these environments have a lasting effect on physical activity behavior.
Abstract Purpose Increasing evidence suggests the existence of heterogeneity in the development of depressive symptoms during adolescence, but little remains known regarding the implications of this ...heterogeneity for the development of commonly co-occurring problems. In this study, we derived trajectories of depressive symptoms in adolescents and examined the codevelopment of multiple behavioral and academic problems in these trajectories. Methods Participants were 6,910 students from secondary schools primarily located in disadvantaged areas of Quebec (Canada) who were assessed annually from the age 12 to 16 years. Trajectories were identified using growth mixture modeling. The course of behavioral (delinquency, substance use) and academic adjustment (school liking, academic achievement) in trajectories was examined by deriving latent growth curves for each covariate conditional on trajectory membership. Results We identified five trajectories of stable-low (68.1%), increasing (12.1%), decreasing (8.7%), transient (8.7%), and stable-high (2.4%) depressive symptoms. Examination of conditional latent growth curves revealed that the course of behavioral and academic problems closely mirrored the course of depressive symptoms in each trajectory. Conclusions This pattern of results suggests that the course of depressive symptoms and other adjustment problems over time is likely to involve an important contribution of shared underlying developmental process(es).
Evidence regarding the association between adolescent internalising symptoms and school non-completion has been limited and inconclusive.
To examine whether depressive and anxious symptoms at ...secondary school entry predict school non-completion beyond confounders and whether associations differ by baseline academic functioning.
We used logistic regression to examine associations between depressive and anxious symptoms in grade 7 (age 12-14) and school non-completion (age 18-20) in 4962 adolescents.
Depressive symptoms did not predict school non-completion after adjustment, but moderation analyses revealed an association in students with elevated academic functioning. A curvilinear association was found for anxiety: both low and high anxious symptoms predicted school non-completion, although only low anxiety remained predictive after adjustment.
Associations between internalising symptoms and school non-completion are modest. Common school-based interventions targeting internalising symptoms are unlikely to have a major impact on school non-completion, but may prevent non-completion in selected students.
It remains unclear whether school environments can influence the emotional health of adolescents. In this large-scale prospective study, we use multilevel modeling to examine whether the school ...socioeducational environment contributes to the risk of developing depressive symptoms in secondary school students.
As part of a longitudinal study on school success in disadvantaged communities, 5262 adolescents from 71 secondary schools were followed annually. Socioeducational environment was assessed by a composite measure of social climate, learning opportunities, fairness and clarity of rules, and safety. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Multilevel regressions tested the association between school socioeducational environment in grade 8 and depressive symptoms in grades 10 to 11, adjusting for previous depressive symptoms in grade 7 and potential confounders at the individual and school levels.
Modest but significant variation in depressive symptoms was found between schools (intraclass correlation = 3.3%). School-level socioeducational environment in grade 8 was predictive of student depressive symptoms in grades 10 to 11, even after adjusting for potential school and individual confounders. This association was slightly stronger for girls. Student perceptions of school socioeducational environment were also predictive of depressive symptoms. Other school-level factors, including school size, were not predictive of depressive symptoms once socioeducational environment was taken into account.
Adolescents who attend a secondary school with a better socioeducational environment are at reduced risk of developing depressive symptoms. School environments appear to have a greater influence on risk in adolescent girls than boys.
Self-esteem and body image are central to coping successfully with the developmental challenges of adolescence. However, the current knowledge surrounding self-esteem and body image is fraught with ...controversy. This study attempts to clarify some of them by addressing three questions: (1) Are the intraindividual developmental trajectories of self-esteem and body image stable across adolescence? (2) What is the direction of the relations between body image and self-esteem over time? (3) What is the role of gender, ethnicity, and pubertal development on those trajectories? This study relies on Autoregressive Latent Trajectory analyses based on data from a 4-year, 6-wave, prospective longitudinal study of 1,001 adolescents. Self-esteem and body image levels remained high and stable over time, although body image levels also tended to increase slightly. The results show that levels of self-esteem were positively influenced by levels of body image. However, these effects remained small and most of the observed associations were cross-sectional. Finally, the effects of pubertal development on body image and self-esteem levels were mostly limited to non-Caucasian females who appeared to benefit from more advanced pubertal development. Conversely, Caucasian females presented the lowest self-esteem and body image levels of all, although for them more advanced pubertal development levels were associated with a slight rise in body image over time.
PDF
