BACKGROUND: During secondary education, a stage with a high risk of failure and school dropout, social support is an important contextual variable for the prevention of school maladjustment. The aim of this study is to examine a theoretical model of the explanatory capacity of social support in terms of school adjustment, understood as school engagement and perceived academic performance. METHOD: Participants were 1,468 students (51% girls; 49% boys) from the Basque Country, aged between 12 and 17 (M=14.03, SD=1.36). The study had an ex post facto cross-sectional design. The measurement instruments used were: TCMS -teacher support subscale, AFA-R -family support and peer support subscales, SEM -School Engagement Measure, and EBAE-10 - perceived academic performance subscale. Various different structural models were tested. RESULTS: The first-choice model was one in which social support predicts school engagement with perceived academic performance as a mediating variable: together, both variables predict 73% of school engagement. The strongest effect was that of teacher support, followed by family support, whereas friends were not found to have any direct effect on school adjustment variables. CONCLUSIONS: Teachers and families should strive to offer social support to students as a means of strengthening perceived academic self-efficacy and school engagement.
BACKGROUND: During secondary education, a stage with a high risk of failure and school dropout, social support is an important contextual variable for the prevention of school maladjustment. The aim of this study is to examine a theoretical model of the explanatory capacity of social support in terms of school adjustment, understood as school engagement and perceived academic performance. METHOD:Participants were 1,468 students (51% girls; 49% boys) from the Basque Country, aged between 12 and 17 (M=14.03, SD=1.36). The study had an ex post facto cross-sectional design. The measurement instruments used were: TCMS -teacher support subscale, AFA-R -family support and peer support subscales, SEM -School Engagement Measure, and EBAE-10 - perceived academic performance subscale. Various different structural models were tested. RESULTS: The first-choice model was one in which social support predicts school engagement with perceived academic performance as a mediating variable: together, both variables predict 73% of school engagement. The strongest effect was that of teacher support, followed by family support, whereas friends were not found to have any direct effect on school adjustment variables. CONCLUSIONS: Teachers and families should strive to offer social support to students as a means of strengthening perceived academic self-efficacy and school engagement.
Authors: Ana Belén Barragán Martín; María Del Mar Molero Jurado; María Del Carmen Pérez-Fuentes; Nieves Fátima Oropesa Ruiz; África Martos Martínez; María Del Mar Simón Márquez; José Jesús Gázquez Linares Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2021-05-12 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Álvaro Postigo; Rubén Fernández-Alonso; Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero; Covadonga González-Nuevo; José Muñiz Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-03-04 Impact factor: 3.390