A three‐wave longitudinal assessment of socioemotional development in a year‐long school‐based ‘gap year’

Background Transition Year (TY) is a quasi‐gap year offered midway through post‐primary education in Ireland. TY is intended to provide a low‐stakes environment to promote maturity and social skills, and to prepare students for adult life. Previous interview‐based research has found that TY is seen as a positive experience by many students and teachers. However, no study has sought to quantify the extent to which TY participation may be associated with socioemotional development. Aims To gather baseline data before TY and then examine differences in socioemotional outcomes over a 2‐year period (three waves of data collection) between students who went on to take part in TY and those who did not. Sample A total of 1,563 Grade 9 students ‎(47% female, mean age = 15.4 years) in 20 schools were randomly sampled to provide a nationally representative sample. Methods Outcome measures were selected to reflect (1) the intended aims of TY and (2) outcomes consistently identified through qualitative research as being associated with TY. These include student–teacher relations, self‐reliance, subjective age, school satisfaction, and social self‐efficacy. Latent growth curve models were used to examine differences in students’ development over time, controlling for initial (baseline) status and background covariates. Results TY participants reported significantly higher increases in subjective age and (for boys) self‐reliance over three waves than non‐participants. However, expected differences were not observed for other measures. Conclusions This is the first study to report longitudinal quantitative analyses of socioemotional outcomes in TY. The results highlight a tension between broadly positive qualitative reports of TY outcomes and the limited quantitative evidence, to date, of same. Some directions for future research are suggested.