School alienation and student well-being: a cross-lagged longitudinal analysis

European Journal of Psychology of Education - School alienation is identified as a severe educational problem that hampers students’ academic journey. However, little is known about the...     

Effects of employing ridge regression in structural equation models

LISREL 8 invokes a ridge option when maximum likelihood or generalized least squares are used to estimate a structural equation model with a nonpositive definite covariance or correlation matrix. The implications of the ridge option for model fit statistics, parameter estimates, and standard errors are explored through the use of 2 examples. The results indicate that maximum likelihood estimates are quite stable with the ridge option, though fit statistics and standard errors vary considerably and therefore cannot be trusted. As a result of these findings, the application of the ridge method to structural equation models is not recommended.     

Resilience and psychopathology among victimized youth in residential care

This study examines the role of several resilience resources in the relationship between lifetime victimization and mental health problems among adolescents in care. The sample comprised 127 adolescents (53.% females, aged 12–17 years) from residential care facilities in Catalonia, Spain. The Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire, the Youth Self-Report, and the Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire were used to assess victimization, psychological symptoms, and resilience respectively. Results indicated that poly-victimization was associated with fewer resources, and with an increased risk of mental health problems. Self-resources mediated the relationship between victimization and internalizing and externalizing symptoms; community support mediated the relationship between victimization and internalizing symptoms. Self, school and peer support moderated the relationship between victimization and externalizing symptoms. Adolescents with fewer self-resources and less school support reported more externalizing symptoms, as did those with more peer support. However, poly-victimized youths reported symptoms within the clinical range, regardless of their level of resources. The findings stress the importance of preventing poly-victimization and of empowering poly-victimized adolescents, who appear to present low levels of resources. Researchers and clinicians should continue to study the poly-victimization/psychopathology relationship, and also design interventions and prevention programs which incorporate the most relevant resilience resources.     

纵向数据下半参数模型估计的渐近正态性

考虑纵向数据半参数回归模型:Y=Xβ+g(T)+ε,基于最小二乘法和局部线性拟合的方法建立了模型中参数分量β,回归函数g(·)和误差方差σ2的估计量,并在适当条件下得到了它们的渐近正态性和最优收敛速度.     

School quality signals and attendance in rural Guatemala

This study analyzes school dropout in rural Guatemala using event history data and unusually detailed data on schools and teachers. Significant results for language of instruction, teacher education and fighting between students demonstrate the importance of accounting for school context influences on an outcome that has, historically, been analyzed mainly as a function of family background. Less support is found for the contention that dropout is lower in schools that are better at maximizing student achievement. Finally, using interaction analysis some of the school effects vary significantly by student gender and ethnicity. The various linkages between school features and dropout highlight the complicated reality of identifying the kinds of features of schools that are valued by poor families.     

Comparing public and private high schools using three SAT data sets

Proponents of private schooling claim that private high schools, on the average, more effectively promote measured academic achievement than public high schools. They have also argued that private high schools increase high school completion rates and improve college enrollment rates among high school graduates. Their antagonists, typically, hold that there is little or no difference between public and private high schools with respect to any of these outcomes. We address two of these school effectivenes issues by applying multiple-regression analysis to two SAT data sets for Florida and a national SAT data set. We ask whether there are differences between public and private high schools in promoting achievement as measured by the high-profile SAT verbal and math tests. At the same time, we are asking, at least implicity, if either public or private high schools provide an SAT soore advantage in promoting college enrollments. Our analysis finds a consistent advantage for public high schools with respect to SAT math attainment. For high schools generally, however, it seems clear that school effects outweigh the impact of socially ascribed traits, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and social class.     

Behavior problems in blind children and youth: A prevalence study

The Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1979) was completed by classroom teachers for 104 children and youth (64 boys and 40 girls) at a state residential school for the blind to determine the prevalence of problem behavior. Results were compared to earlier studies of behavior problems of nonhandicapped children and of two groups of hearing-impaired children, one living at home and attending a community program and a second group attending a state residential school. Results were more similar to those obtained with the hearing-impaired children in the residential setting than to either the nonhandicapped or the hearing-impaired living at home. Comparisons by sex failed to find statistically significant differences.     

Children exposed to intimate partner violence: Identifying differential effects of family environment on children's trauma and psychopathology symptoms through regression mixture models

The majority of analytic approaches aimed at understanding the influence of environmental context on children's socioemotional adjustment assume comparable effects of contextual risk and protective factors for all children. Using self-reported data from 289 maternal caregiver-child dyads, we examined the degree to which there are differential effects of severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure, yearly household income, and number of children in the family on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and psychopathology symptoms (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems) among school-age children between the ages of 7–12 years. A regression mixture model identified three latent classes that were primarily distinguished by differential effects of IPV exposure severity on PTS and psychopathology symptoms: (1) asymptomatic with low sensitivity to environmental factors (66% of children), (2) maladjusted with moderate sensitivity (24%), and (3) highly maladjusted with high sensitivity (10%). Children with mothers who had higher levels of education were more likely to be in the maladjusted with moderate sensitivity group than the asymptomatic with low sensitivity group. Latino children were less likely to be in both maladjusted groups compared to the asymptomatic group. Overall, the findings suggest differential effects of family environmental factors on PTS and psychopathology symptoms among children exposed to IPV. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

School size and student achievement: a longitudinal analysis

Numerous initiatives by private philanthropies and the US government have supported school size reduction policies as an educational reform intended to improve student outcomes. Empirical evidence to support these claims, however, is underdeveloped. In this article, we draw on information from a longitudinal dataset provided by the Northwest Evaluation Association covering more than 1 million students in 4 US states. Employing a student fixed effects strategy, we estimate how a student’s achievement changes as (s)he moves between schools of different sizes. We find evidence that students’ academic achievement in math and reading declines as school size increases. The negative effects of large schools appear to matter most in higher grades, which is also when schools tend to be the largest.     

School Governors: conceptual and practical problems

ABSTRACT The new role of school governor poses questions about the proper conduct of these new authorities in regard to the professional work of schools. Schools have unique purposes and for that reason metaphors for their governors' conduct from commerce and from democratic decision-making have important limitations as well as some strengths. Schools need to account for their use of public funds, but they are not institutions whose main purpose is profit. They need to respect the popular will, but this cannot mean the handover of all professional functions to governors. The distinction between management and governance is considered and it is suggested that the jury might be a more appropriate model for school governors' activity.     

Adverse childhood experiences and adjustment: A longitudinal study of street-involved youth in Brazil

Most research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has been conducted in high-income countries in the global North. The current longitudinal study examined the prevalence, overlap, and impact of ACEs in a sample of Brazilian children and adolescents who use city streets as spaces for socialization and survival (i.e., street-involved youth). Participants (N = 113; M age = 14.18 years) were recruited in three cities following standardized procedures. Most youth were male (80.5%) and non-White (91%). Lifetime exposure to ACEs was assessed at the first study time point; six indicators of psychological, behavioral, and physical adjustment were assessed 6 months later. Analyses addressed three research goals. First, the prevalence of seven ACEs was examined. Youth reported an average of 4.8 ACEs (SD = 1.25); no significant age or gender differences were found in ACEs exposure (all ps > .05). Second, the overlap between different ACEs was explored. Family dysfunction was correlated with family disruption and physical abuse; poverty and physical abuse were related (ps < .05). Third, prospective associations between ACEs and adjustment were tested. Total number of ACEs was not significantly correlated with any outcome, but several associations emerged for specific ACEs. For example, death of a close friend or family member was prospectively associated with negative affect; sexual abuse was associated with illicit drug use and physical health symptoms (ps < .05). Findings highlight the prevalence of ACEs in this vulnerable population and underscore the value of extending research on ACEs into novel populations and contexts.     

School attendance and attainment: poor attenders' perceptions of schoolwork and parental involvement in their education

Because of established links with attainment, the UK government has, over the last ten years, developed policies to improve school attendance. Legislation now makes school attendance a parental responsibility. In the small-scale study reported in this article, Anne Sheppard, manager of an Education Welfare Service Team in North Yorkshire, collected data on 57 pupils' attitudes to school and schoolwork and their perceptions of their parents' involvement in their education. In order to examine the role of these variables in relation to school attendance, 'good' and 'poor' attenders of 12 to 13 years of age, matched for ability, were compared on a number of quantifiable measures regarding their perceptions of schoolwork and their parents' behaviour in relation to aspects of their schooling. Both good and poor attenders avoided class work if possible, but good attenders were more likely to do their homework and perceived their parents as more involved in their education. Anne Sheppard argues that Education Social Welfare Services need to take account of findings from parental involvement research in their practice if they are to increase both children's school attendance and attainment.     

Re-victimization patterns in a national longitudinal sample of children and youth

OBJECTIVE: To understand to the degree to which a broad variety of victimizations, including child maltreatment, conventional crime, peer, and sexual victimizations, persist for children from 1 year to the next. DESIGN: A national sample of 1467 children aged 2-17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with caretakers and youth themselves) about a comprehensive range of victimization experiences in the previous year, and then re-assessed (72.3% of baseline sample) after a 1-year interval. RESULTS: The risk for re-victimization in Year 2 was high for children victimized in Year 1, with risk ratios ranging from 2.2 for physical assault to 6.9 for sexual victimization. Victimization of any one type left substantial vulnerability even for different types of subsequent re-victimization (e.g., property crime victimization was associated with higher risk of sexual victimization the next year). Children with four or more types of victimization in Year 1 ("poly-victims") were at particularly high risk of persisting poly-victimization. Persisting poly-victimization was more likely for children who scored high on anger/aggression and who had recent life adversities. Desistence from poly-victimization was associated with having more good friends. Onset of poly-victimization in Year 2, in contrast to persistence from Year 1, was associated with violent or maltreating families, family problems such as alcohol abuse, imprisonment, unemployment and family disruption. Having more older siblings acted as both a risk factor and a protective factor for different groups of youth. CONCLUSION: Children previously victimized in 1 year are at higher risk of continued victimization, and the poly-victims are at particular risk. These findings suggest the potential merit of identifying these high-risk children and making them priority targets for prevention efforts.     

Emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between child maltreatment and psychopathology: A structural equation model

The present study investigated the mediating effects of emotion dysregulation on the relationship between child maltreatment and psychopathology. An adult sample (N = 701) from diverse backgrounds of psychopathology completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the negative affect subscale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) in a cross-sectional online survey. Correlational analyses showed that all types of child maltreatment were uniformly associated with emotion dysregulation, and dimensions of emotion dysregulation were strongly related to psychopathology. Limited access to strategies for emotion regulation emerged as the most powerful predictor. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relationship between child maltreatment and psychopathology, even after controlling for shared variance with negative affect. These findings emphasize the importance of emotion dysregulation as a possible mediating mechanism in the association between child maltreatment and later psychopathology. Additionally, interventions targeting specific emotion regulation strategies may be effective to reduce psychopathology in victims of child maltreatment.     

Child maltreatment and attentional problems: A longitudinal birth cohort study

ObjectiveTo examine whether child maltreatment is associated with attentional problems in adolescence (14 years) and young adulthood (21 years), and whether outcomes depend on the type of maltreatment (sexual vs non-sexual).MethodsData from a population based cohort study involving 3778 mother-child pairs were linked with data from the state child protection agency to examine associations between child abuse and neglect and attention problems, measured using the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and the Achenbach Young Adult Self Report (YASR).Results245 (6.5%) participants had been the subject of notification for non-sexual maltreatment (one or more of neglect, emotional or physical abuse) compared with only 54 (1.4%) who had been subject of notification for suspected sexual abuse. After adjusting for potential confounding variables including maternal, participant and sociodemographic factors, we found those exposed to non sexual maltreatment were likely to experience attentional problems at 14 years (p < .001) and 21 years of age (p = .044), compared with those participants who had not experienced non sexual maltreatment. By contrast, at age 14 years, sexual abuse was associated with attentional problems only as reported by the participant, not their carer. Results at 21 years of age for those exposed to sexual child maltreatment (p=.655) were again in contrast to the observed association between attentional problems and non sexual child maltreatment (p = .035).ConclusionIn this study, non-sexual maltreatment in childhood is associated with attentional problems at both 14 years and 21 years of age. These findings highlight the need for targeted research to better understand the longer term mental health outcomes for children exposed to non-sexual maltreatment. Potential implications for mental health services include the need for broader screening at presentation and importantly, greater collaboration with schools, general practitioners and paediatricians, given the greatest impact would arguably be within these settings.     

Examining school dropout among rural youth in Honduras: Evidence from a mixed-methods longitudinal study

This study uses longitudinal mixed methods data to examine patterns of dropout among a cohort of 1305 Honduran rural youth from the time they were in 6th grade to the age of 20. Based on our analysis of household and student surveys and in-depth interviews, we find that dropout is a major problem, particularly during transition years and during the first year of upper secondary education. Dropout results from the accumulation of push and pull factors that lead students to question whether it is worthwhile to stay enrolled, as they lack opportunities to convert their schooling into valued outcomes.     

School variation in youth transitions in Ireland,Scotland and the Netherlands

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the comparative study of youth transitions. National and international studies have analysed the role of individual and institutional (education and labour market) factors in shaping the transition from school to the labour market. Using data drawn from a cross‐national database of secondary school leavers and multilevel modelling, this paper aims to improve upon the existing research through the analysis of the effect of school factors (as well as individual factors) on pupils' post‐school outcomes. Results show that school variations in pupils' post‐school outcomes are mainly accounted for by curriculum type in the Netherlands, individual factors in Scotland and a mix of individual and school factors in Ireland.     

Processing speed in childhood and adolescence: longitudinal models for examining developmental change

The primary aim of the present study was to examine longitudinal models to determine the function that best describes developmental change in processing speed during childhood and adolescence. In one sample, children and adolescents (N= 503) were tested twice over an average interval of 2 years on two psychometric measures of processing speed: Visual Matching and Cross Out. In another sample, children and adolescents (N= 277) were tested four times, every 6 months, on Cross Out. Age-related changes in performance on both tasks were examined using six longitudinal models representing different hypotheses of growth. Linear, hyperbolic, inverse regression, and transition models yielded relatively poor fit to the data; the fit of the exponential and quadratic models was substantially better. The heuristic value of these latter models is discussed.