High levels of school connectedness have been shown to be associated with positive outcomes for adolescents (e.g., higher levels of self-worth and higher test scores); however, the impact of school connectedness during early adolescence has not been studied in relation to school-related outcomes during later adolescence. The current study explores…

The purpose of this short-term longitudinal quantitative study was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the influence of teacher autonomy support and structure on young adolescents' academic motivation, classroom engagement, school belonging, and achievement. Middle school students (N = 209, 61% female) self-reported perceptions of teacher…

How might middle school teachers and schools more appropriately engage early adolescent students in the writing process so that they are motivated and engaged to "want" to write and write well? This article introduces "Writers Matter," an approach designed to engage and motivate young adolescents in the writing process,…

The purpose of this study is to examine whether teachers' perceptions of educational value discontinuity are predictive of the psychological antecedents of academic performance (e.g., academic engagement and academic self-efficacy) during middle school. Educational value discontinuity is defined as the difference between teachers' actual…

Throughout the world, school grade structures are most variable during the early adolescent years when students can find themselves in a variety of school models. This paper investigates the impact of two popular school models in the United States (middle school and K-8) on the self-esteem and self-concept of early adolescents. Based on mixed…