Discerning direct and mediated effects of ecological structures and processes on adolescents' educational outcomes.

Full Abstract

This short-term longitudinal study examined the relations among family and school characteristics, family-level processes (youth perceptions of parent-adolescent interactions), school-level processes (youth perceptions of school belonging, school climate), adolescents' school engagement, and later academic performance. Participants were an ethnically diverse, urban sample of 1,120 9th-grade students (M age = 14.6 years). The structural characteristics of families and schools influenced the proximal processes that occurred therein, and these proximal processes, in turn, influenced students' proximal (i.e., engagement) and distal educational outcomes (i.e., grades in school). Moreover, the structural characteristics of families and schools influenced proximal and distal outcomes indirectly through their influence on the proximal processes. The multimediated ecological model suggested that intervening at the process level may be a successful means of improving both adolescents' engagement in school and their subsequent school performance.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

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Author information

Author/s: Benner, Aprile D (AD); Graham, Sandra (S); Mistry, Rashmita S (RS);

Affiliation: Department of Human Ecology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX 78712, USA. abenner(-atsign-)prc.utexas.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Developmental psychology (Dev Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 44 (issue 3) : pp 840-54

Dates: Created 2008/05/13; Completed 2008/08/11;

PMID: 18473648, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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