Adolescent Social Skills, Perception of Social Support and Motivation to Learn: the impact on School Performance

Humberto Claudio Passeri Medeiros,Adriana Benevides Soares,Marcia Cristina Monteiro

doi:10.1590/1413-82712021260311

Humberto Claudio Passeri Medeiros, Adriana Benevides Soares + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-82712021260311

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Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to verify whether the School Performance variable can be explained by the Adolescent Social Skills (ASS), Motivation to Learn and Perception of Social Support constructs in groups of students that were with and without an age/grade discrepancy in Elementary School and in Acceleration classes. This study also aimed to compare the constructs in the groups. Participants were 500 students from public schools, aged 15 to 18 years, divided into two groups according to the school progression. The Social Skills Inventory for Adolescents, the Learning Motivation in Elementary Education Scale, the Social Support Appraisals Scale and the Class Council Maps of the participating institutions were used. For the data analysis, Multiple Linear Regression was performed and Student’s t-test. The results showed that Adolescent Social Skills, Motivation to Learn and the Perception of Social Support better explained the school performance of the regular progression students. When comparing the groups, the regular progression students presented higher mean scores in Empathy, Self-Control, Civility, Assertiveness, Social Development and in the overall total of the ASS scale. The same occurred when comparing the means of Perception of Social Support and Motivation to Learn of students with and without age/grade discrepancy. The data obtained can contribute to preventive intervention actions for academic competences and social skills, aiming at improving school performance and maintaining regular progression.

Highlights

The transition from Elementary Education (EE) to High School (HS) has been outlined as critical for the student due to the characteristic challenges of this stage of formation
The results indicated that there was a predictive relationship between the Social Skills of Students, Perception of Social Support, Motivation to Learn explanatory variables and the School Performance criterion variable for groups of students with and without age/grade discrepancy
The results demonstrate that the majority of the variables presented significant differences, except in the Empathy total, in the Self-control difficulty, in the Civility total, F4 Assertiveness frequency, in the Affective Approach frequency and Affective Approach total, in the Development total and in the Scale total

Summary

Introduction

The transition from Elementary Education (EE) to High School (HS) has been outlined as critical for the student due to the characteristic challenges of this stage of formation. There is a portion of students that end up failing and increasing the age/grade discrepancy index. Understanding the reasons that lead students to experience failure in Elementary and High School Education could be relevant for reintroducing them into the regular grade. It may be important to consider the difficulties encountered by students in the pedagogical, social and cultural fields that lead to low performance. The Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional (LDBEN - National Education Guidelines and Bases Law, 1996) established possibilities for students that have a history of school failure and the consequent age/study grade discrepancy to be included in progression correction actions (Nunes, Pontes, Silva, & Dell’Aglio, 2014). The pedagogical approach needs to be based on the selection of central themes, such as the mastery of the four mathematical operations and their applicability, reading, writing and textual interpretation, worked on with a view that enables learning and makes it possible to overcome difficulties considering cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects

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