Peers become especially influential in adolescence, a developmental period marked by a nadir in school motivation. In the classroom, adolescents often engage in social comparison with their peers to ascertain their own academic competence, which can have substantial effects on their motivation and learning. The present experimental study examined…

In Germany, Turkish-origin students face negative competence-related stereotypes held by different groups in society, including teachers at school. While a large body of research has examined stereotypes (i.e., "other-stereotypes") about immigrant students, little is known about their own competence-related "meta-stereotypes,"…

Educational aspirations are an important predictor of academic outcomes. While there has been considerable research on educational aspirations in the West, there has been little research in East Asia, and the investigation of factors influencing adolescent aspirations has been neglected, particularly in rural areas. Drawing on ecological systems…

Exhaustion, as a key facet of burnout, is one of the most common risks that compromises teacher well-being and contributes to a shortage of teachers. While the school social environment has been identified as an influential context for teacher exhaustion, the relative importance of its different facets remains unclear. This study focused on the…

Racial and ethnic achievement gaps contribute to the lack of underrepresented minorities in STEM-related careers. This research is grounded in the expectancy-value model of achievement motivation which posits that motivation is influenced by social-cognitive variables such as self-efficacy and beliefs about the usefulness or utility of the task.…

Positive education has gained increased interest and attention in the last decade. Born as an applied movement within positive psychology, positive education aims to introduce a positive approach to education to aid schools in promoting happiness, improving learning and performance, and reducing mental health problems among children and…

Ethnic discrimination is a serious problem in education. Previous quantitative research is predominately focused on the consequences of ethnic discrimination. Very little is known, however, about the characteristics of the school context that influence the initial experience of ethnic discrimination. This knowledge is essential to support schools…

The present longitudinal study was designed to scrutinize how adolescents perceive their life in upper secondary schools in general, and how central aspects of their perceived classroom climate predicted their coping beliefs and experience of school stress in particular. The participants were 1215 students in upper secondary schools (grades 2 and…

Higher education increases the likelihood of a healthy and successful life. This study investigated the association between relative deprivation and aspiration for college education in adolescents in Japan. The data of the 2016 survey of the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the twenty-first Century, a nationwide birth cohort study following…

Critical consciousness (CC) has been linked to academic and civic engagement for students from marginalized backgrounds, but little work has examined CC for students from more privileged groups. In addition, research indicates that school characteristics may promote the development of CC, but this literature has yet to be fully developed.…

Although previous literature indicates that parents and siblings each provide key support for Latinx adolescents' academic success, most studies have not considered how parents and siblings work as a system to support adolescents in science. Informed by theories on family systems and family influence on youth's achievement and education, this…

This study uses a subsample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine protective factors for lower-income, first-generation students. A logistic regression model is used to explore the impacts of (1) gender, (2) race, (3) perceived sense of belonging during middle or high school, and 4) protective adult…

This study examines, through the lens of gender, whether engagement in sports, self-efficacy and grade level affect academic achievements of adolescents. The study comprised 491 10th-12th grade students--218 males and 273 females; 170 participated in competitive sports, 185 participated in non-competitive sports, and 136 were not involved in…

Given the rise in cyberbullying among secondary education students and the importance of certain psychological adjustment variables for the comprehension of this type of violent behavior, both in bullies and in victims, the purpose of the present study was to analyse the emotional adjustment of those involved in cyber- and traditional bullying.…

Attitudes toward ethnic and racial identity have been linked to both wellbeing and maladaptive outcomes that affect belonging at school. Further, relatedness (or connectedness) as an indicator of school belonging has been positively associated with adaptive forms of motivation, acceptance of school, protection against risk factors, and scholastic…