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Adolescents' satisfaction with school experiences: Relationships with demographics, attachment relationships, and school engagement behavior
Author(s) -
Elmore Gail M.,
Huebner E. Scott
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.20488
Subject(s) - psychology , socioeconomic status , demographics , developmental psychology , student engagement , aggression , variance (accounting) , peer group , social psychology , demography , mathematics education , population , accounting , sociology , business
This study investigated the relationships among demographics, parent and peer attachment, school satisfaction, and student engagement behavior in a 1‐year longitudinal study of secondary‐school students. Statistically significant cross‐sectional differences in school satisfaction were observed, based on grade, but not on race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Level of school satisfaction did not moderate the relationships between parent and peer satisfaction and negative student engagement behaviors at Time 2 (controlling for Time 1). School satisfaction did account for significant incremental variance across all levels of parent and peer attachment relationships, although predicting a larger proportion of variance for withdrawal behavior than for resistance/aggression behavior. Adolescents' appraisals of their school satisfaction appear to be an independent predictor of their school engagement behaviors, regardless of the quality of their parent or peer attachment relationships. Limitations of the study as well as implications for future research and educational practice are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.