Social Support Matters: Longitudinal Effects of Social Support on Three Dimensions of School Engagement From Middle to High School

• Published in: Child development 2012-05, Vol.83 (3), p.877-895
• Main Authors: Wang, Ming-Te, Eccles, Jacquelynne S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Achievement; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; African-Americans; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Compliance; Compliance (Psychology); Educational psychology; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Engagement; Ethnicity; Extracurricular Activities; Faculty; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender; Gender Differences; Gender differentiation; High School Students; High schools; Humans; Identification; Interpersonal Relations; Learner Engagement; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Middle school education; Middle School Students; Middle schools; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parents; Parents - psychology; Peer Group; Peer groups; Peer Relationship; Prediction; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Race; Racial differentiation; Schooling; Schools; Secondary education; Secondary schools; Social Support; Social Support Groups; Socioeconomic status; Student School Relationship; Students - psychology; Teacher Student Relationship; Teachers; Teenagers; Trajectories; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01745.x

This study examined the relative influence of adolescents' supportive relationships with teachers, peers, and parents on trajectories of different dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school and how these associations differed by gender and race or ethnicity. The sample consisted of 1,479 students (52% females, 56% African American). The average growth trajectories of school compliance, participation in extracurricular activities, school identification, and subjective valuing of learning decreased from 7th to 11th grades (mean ages = 12.9 years to 17.2 years). Different sources of social support were not equally important in their impact on school engagement, and the effect of these sources differed by the aspect of engagement studied. For instance, peer social support predicted adolescents' school compliance more strongly and school identification less strongly than teacher social support.