Young Adolescent Students Research Articles

Developmental trajectories of students' beliefs about social success: Differences between students with and without a middle school transition.

Attaining social success is a significant concern during early adolescence. The characteristics that youth believe will bring social success are known to change over time and vary across contexts, especially over the transition to middle school. The analytic sample included 614 students (52% girls, 48% boys; 53% Black, 47% White) from the Midwestern United States. At yearly intervals during grades 6-8, participants completed self-report surveys assessing their endorsement of five characteristics (sincerity, academic responsibility, dominance, disingenuity, athleticism/attractiveness) that described peers in their grade who have lots of friends and get along well with others (i.e., social success). The sample included students who attended the same school from kindergarten-eighth grade (K8) and students who made a transition from an elementary to a middle school after 6th grade (ESMS). Multigroup longitudinal growth models revealed some concerning trends over time. For both ESMS and K8 students, their endorsement of sincerity decreased, their endorsement of disingenuity increased, and their endorsement of athleticism/attractiveness was high and stable. ESMS students' endorsement of academic responsibility decreased over time and their endorsement of dominance showed increasing trends. K8 students' endorsements of academic responsibility and dominance were stable. However, across contexts, compared to the other characteristics, sincerity was most often ranked the highest. The findings highlight that some changes in students' beliefs about social success may be unique to students who experience a school transition whereas others may be developmentally normative. Implications for the education of young adolescent students are discussed.

A Longitudinal Study of English Achievement of Korean EFL Young Adolescent Students: Focusing on Initial English Proficiency, English Private Tutoring, and Urbanicity

A Longitudinal Study of English Achievement of Korean EFL Young Adolescent Students: Focusing on Initial English Proficiency, English Private Tutoring, and Urbanicity

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND ITS PREVENTION STRATEGIES ON ADOLESCENT SCHOOL STUDENTS

Substance use continues to be recognized as one of the major health and social issues in the Caribbean. This study focusses on the risks and consequences of adolescent school student's exposure to alcohol and prevention strategies. Participants were selected from the age group of 13 to 19 years old, who are attending Secondary School. Five schools were chosen according to the prevalence of alcohol. Students were purposively selected from each school based on the recommendations from the school social workers. Students completed the Adolescent Drug Involvement Scale (ADIS) to understand the extent of involvement in alcohol use. The study recommends that there is a need for effective parenting where training in awareness, skills, and techniques around engaging young adolescent students with age-appropriate information on alcohol abuse can be disbursed and reinforced as they enter various stages of their development.

Helping young students cope with the threat of fake news: efficacy of news literacy training for junior-secondary school students in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT As fake news proliferates, the urgency to educate young students in news literacy grows. Research indicates that while young adolescent students recognize the detrimental impact that fake news has on society, they lack the knowledge and motivation to combat it. We conducted news literacy training with 101 Hong Kong students (aged 11 to 14) evaluating their news literacy, susceptibility to fake news, perceived responsibility, as well as motivation to engage in protective behaviours. The training significantly enhanced participants’ news media knowledge, perceived control, and reduced their vulnerability to fake news. Participants became more motivated to report fake news, warn others, suggest alternative sources, and manage preferences to filter our problematic news sources. Participants also demonstrated an improved ability to evaluate the credibility of a real-world news article. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the training for this age group and suggest its potential for implementation in junior secondary-school classrooms.

Supporting 11 to 13 year old students’ reading: perceptions of parents

In New Zealand, during the last decade, there has been a focus on improving home-school partnerships to help raise literacy achievement. When parents are aware of what is happening in the classroom to support their child’s reading development and learning, parents can put strategies in place to further endorse learning in the home environment. The article explores the issues surrounding the role of parents in the literacy learning of their children, particularly those of young adolescent students. Twenty seven parents of students in years seven and eight were randomly selected by the principals at six New Zealand schools. The schools represented a wide range of school types. The parents were interviewed using a semi - structured schedule. The research found that there was a link between parents who enjoyed reading and modeled this in their home environment to their child’s perceived interest and success in reading achievement. Fathers often were a powerful model for their children, more particularly their sons, when in developing attitudes towards the value and interest in reading for leisure or information.

Investigating the effects of autonomy-supportive parenting practices on Italian young adolescent students' motivation to defend victims of bullying: findings on the mediating roles of reactance, depression, anxiety, and stress.

Data were collected from 578 Italian public school students ages 10-14 (M age = 11.8 years, 52% boys), who completed a survey in their classroom. The survey included self-report measures of parental orientation, motivation to defend victims of bullying, reactance, anxiety, depression, and stress. We found that autonomy-supportive parenting had a positive effect on autonomous motivation to defend, and that this effect was weakly mediated by reactance. Moreover, autonomy-supportive parenting had a negative effect on extrinsic motivation to defend, which was partially mediated by reactance. Reactance had a positive direct effect on extrinsic motivation to defend, but results also showed that anxiety, depression, and stress did not mediate the effect of autonomy-supportive parenting on motivation to defend. Additionally, autonomy-supportive parenting appeared to play a protective role, being associated with lower levels of reactance, anxiety, depression, and stress. Finally, gender differences were found in our sample, with extrinsic motivation to defend being more prevalent in boys, and autonomous motivation to defend being more prevalent in girls. Girls also reported higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress, compared to boys. Our findings show that autonomy-supportive parenting practices play a significant role in fostering young adolescents' motivation to defend victims of bullying, and that they are also linked with lower feelings of reactance, anxiety, depression, and stress. We argue that interventions aimed at contrasting bullying and cyberbullying among youths should seek to involve parents more and promote the adoption of more autonomy-supportive parenting practices, due to their consistently proven beneficial effects.

Hearing habits of young adolescent students from public and private schools in the Brazilian Federal District

RESUMO Objetivo: analisar os hábitos auditivos de um grupo de alunos e comparar o grau de exposição ao estímulo sonoro via fones de ouvido entre escolas públicas e privadas. Métodos: foram distribuídos questionários contendo perguntas referentes a hábitos auditivos de exposição à música amplificada, aos 1085 alunos de escolas pública e privada. Em seguida, as respostas aos questionamentos foram analisadas e comparadas entre os grupos de alunos. Utilizou-se o teste Qui-quadrado com um nível de significância estatística estabelecido em 5% (p<0,05) para se comparar os hábitos auditivos entre as escolas públicas e privadas. Resultado: de modo geral, a maioria dos alunos (92%) respondeu que tem hábitos auditivos de exposição à música amplificada. Tanto o uso de fones de ouvido (92%) quanto as idas a lugares com música alta (63,6%) tiveram alta prevalência nas respostas aos questionários. Conclusão: alunos de escolas particulares utilizam mais fones de ouvido frequentemente comparados aos alunos de escolas públicas.

Trauma-Informed school practices: Creating positive classroom culture

The middle school years can be exciting and confusing for young adolescent students. Thus it is important for teachers, administrators, and school professionals to create a unique classroom and school culture that meets their needs. Creating a positive classroom culture that supports young adolescents through social, physical, and academic development can be complex. For instance, significant numbers of young adolescents have or are experiencing traumatic events that can exacerbate their academic performance. Implementing mental health strategies based on trauma-response practices in the middle school classroom can promote healthy mind-sets, help students regain safety and stability, and put them back on track for academic and social success. This article presents specific factors that make middle school students unique and advocates for educators to implement trauma-response best practice strategies into their daily classroom practice. Including these strategies can support young adolescent development, including the mental well-being of students, and promote a positive and productive classroom environment.

The Effect of Health Education on Adolescents' Awareness of HPV Infections and Attitudes towards HPV Vaccination in Greece.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of health education among young adolescents, regarding their level of knowledge about the HPV and the acceptance of the HPV vaccination, with the aim of increasing vaccination coverage, in Trikala city, mainland of Greece. Methods: This study included high school students from all public and private schools of Trikala city. Questionnaires related to knowledge regarding the HPV infection and HPV vaccination were administered in three phases. In the first phase of the study, the questionnaires were completed by the entire study population. During the second and third phases, the completion of the questionnaires concerned only the population that received the intervention (interactive seminars). The second and third phase questionnaires were completed immediately after the interactive seminar and three months later, respectively. The statistical analysis of the results was performed using IBM SPSS 20.0 statistical program. Results: A total of 434 female students completed the questionnaire (response rate 76.26%). Most participants (66.6%) were females. The questionnaires evaluated the respondents’ awareness of the HPV infection. The results show that the percentage of the participants who stated that they “do not know” what HPV is decreased from 44.4% (first phase), to 1.6% (second phase), and 8.1% (third phase). Similarly, the willingness to accept the HPV vaccine increased from 71% (first phase), to 89.1% (second phase), and 83.5% (third phase). Conclusions: The present study shows that targeted interactive informational interventions in the school environment leads to a statistically significant increase in both the level of knowledge about HPV and the willingness of young adolescent students to be vaccinated against cervical cancer.

An Analysis of Responsive Middle Level School Leadership Practices: Revisiting the Developmentally Responsive Middle Level Leadership Model

This paper presents the qualitative findings from a recent doctoral study that examined the leadership practices of 17 middle school administrators from three school districts in the Canadian province of Alberta (Rheaume, 2018). The data gathered through six focus group interviews are framed within the three dimensions of Brown et al.’s (2002) Developmentally Responsive Middle Level Leadership (DRMLL) model, illustrating ways that middle school leaders are responsive to the development of: (a) young adolescent students by understanding their developmental characteristics and establishing engaging, equitable learning environments that empower them to thrive; (b) faculty by establishing a shared vision and a collaborative culture focused on continuous improvement; and (c) the middle school itself by implementing the organizational structures of the middle school concept that promote meaningful relationships and learner success. Although the findings of this study aligned with the DRMLL model, they also led to suggestions for expanding it to better reflect current leadership practices and the newly revised middle school concept (Bishop & Harrison, 2021). Even so, DRMLL has stood the test of time for nearly two decades and continues to serve as an excellent foundation for middle level leadership.

Preparing middle level teachers through a collaborative documentary novel study

This article describes how preservice teachers (and one inservice teacher) gained content knowledge and pedagogical skills through reading a documentary novel, a genre that combines fictional storytelling with historical primary sources. Preservice teachers read the novel as a required text in a site-based undergraduate course focused on children’s and young adult literature, while an inservice teacher conducted a novel study with her fifth-grade class using the same text. Analysis of course documents, observation notes, and individual and focus group interview transcripts highlighted layers of learning for inservice and preservice teachers and their young adolescent students that supported curriculum and instruction characteristics of successful middle school classrooms. Findings revealed that incorporating a documentary novel study in preservice teacher coursework resulted in increased content knowledge and pedagogical skills necessary for engaging middle level students in learning experiences around integrative and challenging texts. Furthermore, purposeful instruction around a documentary novel featuring highly relatable adolescent characters and a plot that integrated world and everyday life events fostered deep thinking and connections for middle grades students around themes of justice within the context of family, friends, and school and in the shadow of a major political crisis.

Student voice in pedagogical decision-making: nexus of transformation and problematic alliance

Within middle schooling philosophy student voice is identified as a way to engage young adolescent students with learning and feelings of belonging at school. Teachers are encouraged to co-construct responsive pedagogy and curriculum with their students. However, locating student voice in classrooms, governed as these are by entrenched student and teacher roles, renders student influence problematic. This article illustrates through discourse analysis the discursive intricacies one middle grades class encountered when the students and teacher interacted as pedagogical partners within collaborative action research to revitalise reflection pedagogy in their class program. The interplay between authoritative and dialogic discourses that emerged in the project, contextualised through the analysis of classroom talk, examines the micropolitics at play within the student/teacher partnership. The article illustrates student voice work as simultaneously a nexus for transformation and a problematic alliance when students and teachers work together as partners to co-produce pedagogy and curriculum.

Knowledge of Sexual Behavior, Puberty and (STI) Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Very Young Female Adolescent Students 11–15 Years in Nanded District of Maharashtra State

Knowledge of Sexual Behavior, Puberty and (STI) Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Very Young Female Adolescent Students 11–15 Years in Nanded District of Maharashtra State

The Effect of Life Skills Intervention on Social Self Efficacy for Prevention of Drug Abuse Among Young Adolescent Students at Benha City

<i>Background.</i> Young adolescent has to prepare for a global successful adult life of competition and independent functioning which is possible only through enhancing their psychosocial competencies through life skills training. As a health care provider, the school nurse is in a unique position to act as health educator, a change agent for youth substance abuse prevention. This study aims to evaluate the effect of life skills intervention on social self-efficacy for prevention of drug abuse among young adolescent students at Benha City. <i>Methods.</i> A quasi-experimental design was utilized. The study was conducted at two Preparatory Schools in Benha City (Benha Preparatory School for Boys and Benha Shared Preparatory School). Simple random sample of 120 students were included in the present study. Two tools were used for data collection; first tool. The Children’s Self-Efficacy in Peer Interactions (CSPI). It was used to measure confidence in social interactions. Second tool; The Life Skills Training Questionnaire-Elementary Student (LSTQ-ES). This tool is designed to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of elementary students related to social confidence and drug resistance skills. <i>Results.</i> The mean age of the studied students was 14.9±0.45 years. There were statistically significant improvements (P<0.05) regarding to students' social self-efficacy in conflict & non-conflict situations, life skills knowledge & anti-smoking knowledge, anti-drinking and anti-smoking attitudes and life skills behaviors after the life skills intervention as compared to before. <i>Conclusion.</i> life skills intervention was efficient in improving students' social self-efficacy in conflict & non-conflict situations. also, knowledge of life skills & anti-smoking knowledge, anti-drinking and anti-smoking attitudes and life skills behaviors were improved after implementation stage on young adolescent students. <i>Recommendation.</i> The school nurse should plan and perform constant life skills training workshops for students as effective tools of drug abuse prevention in schools.

Association of stress with heart rate variability in different phases of the menstrual cycle

Background: The menstrual cycle signifies a fine balance of female sexual hormones and integrity of hypothalamohypophyseal-gonadal axis, during reproductive age. Many women experience unpredictable menstruation when they encounter various kinds of stress situations that often interrupt the normal cycle. Heart rate variability is the quantitative measure of autonomic tone. Aims and Objectives: The present study is aimed to observe the effect of stress and autonomic balance in different menstrual cycle phases of young adolescent female medical students. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study where 50 young medical female students aged between 18 and 25 years were recruited and their demographic features were measured. All the study procedures except cortisol collection (early morning) were done in between 9 AM and 11 PM after 1–2 h of light breakfast. Results: All parameters were measured in premenstrual phase (25th ± 4 days) and postmenstrual phase (10th ± 5 days). Low frequency (LF) increases from 0.07 ± 0.009Hz to 0.08 ± 0.005 Hz (P – 0.01). However, high frequency decreases from 0.27 ± 0.02Hz to 0.26 ± 0.01Hz (P - 0.01). The time domain parameters SDNN 59.11 ± 24.1 increase to 74.34 ± 52.7 (P – 0.04). STD HR significantly reduced from 69.58 ± 12.1 to 35.36 ± 16.4 (P - 0.01). RMSSD increased from 47.98 ± 5.5 to 75.24 ± 14.6 (P – 0.02). However, NN50 reduced from 64.65 ± 12.8 to 48.52 ± 12.4 statistically significant (P – 0.05). However, there is no significant change in cortisol levels in both phases. Conclusion: The results suggest that there is a significant difference in sympathovagal balance between pre- and post-menstrual phases. LF indicates that vagal discharge is more in premenstrual phase, whereas sympathetic tone increases in postmenstrual phase.

Validity and Reliability of a Korean Version of Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children (YFAS-C)

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Korean version of Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children (YFAS-C). Participants were 419 young adolescent students (11~15 years old). The content validity of the expert group was calculated as the content validity index (CVI) after the translation and reverse translation process of the 25 items of the YFAS-C. The multitrait-multimethod matrix (MTMM) method was used to verify the construct validity; the generalized linear model (GLM) was used to evaluate the concurrent and incremental validity. Reliability was calculated as Kuder-Richardson-20 (KR-20) and Spearman-Brown coefficients. The CVI of the 25 items was greater than the item-level CVI .80 and the scale-level CVI .90. The Korean version of YFAS-C had verified convergent validity in emotional eating and external eating and discriminant validity in restrained eating. In addition, it had verified concurrent validity in emotional eating and external eating. Finally the incremental validity of the Korean version of YFAS-C was statistically significant on BMI. Reliability was KR-20 α=.69 and the Spearman-Brown coefficient was .64. The Korean version of YFAS-C is a valid and reliable scale for measuring the severity of food addiction; it can be a useful scale for preventing obesity by predicting food addiction early.

Career decision-making self-efficacy of young adolescent students in Turkey

ABSTRACT Multiple regression was used to investigate whether the perfectionism perceptions, automatic thoughts, and the grade point average (GPA) of young adolescent students predict their career decision-making self-efficacy levels. The final sample included 383 students in their eighth year of school. Results indicate that positive perfectionism, automatic thoughts, and GPA predict students’ levels of career decision-making self-efficacy. Furthermore, exploratory analyses indicated that female students had higher levels of career decision-making self-efficacy than did male students, as did students whose mothers were graduates of two and four-year postsecondary educational institutions versus high school. Practical recommendations and research suggestions are proposed.

Developing a Fuzzy Clustering-Based Method for Categorizing Young Adolescent Students Based on Their Empathy Scores and Exploring the Relationship Between Their Empathy and Learning Behaviors

Background: Empathy is a skill that has been proved effective in learning and teaching processes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between students’ empathy and their learning behaviors. Methods: A fuzzy clustering-based method (an area of artificial intelligence) was used, according to which students were classified to clusters based on their empathy measures. Students’ empathy was assessed through a questionnaire. Overall, 345 students (11 to 13 years old) from six schools located in three different areas of Tehran, Iran, participated in this study, selected by multistage cluster sampling. In this method, similar samples are classified in one cluster and, then, clusters can be labeled based on their attributes (empathy measures). Two teacher-reported and student-reported questionnaires were used to assess the learning behavior and empathy levels of students. Questionnaires were completed by the students and their teachers during school year 2017 and 2018 (from autumn 2017 to spring 2018). All calculations were performed in MATLAB, a multi-purpose programming environment. Results: Although statistical parameters showed a strong relationship between students’ empathy and their learning behaviors, AI clustering process provides a more exact analysis due to its nature. The results revealed a significant relationship between empathy scores and learning among male students. A P value of 0.0031 indicates a meaningful relationship between empathy scores and learning behavior measures. Conclusions: Number of students in each cluster showed that females are more uniform than males in the sense of empathy. Cultural backgrounds have significant effects on answers to questions. Processes revealed a meaningful difference between males and females when their connection of empathy and learning behaviors were investigated. Cognitive components seem to be more determinative than affective components.

Young Adolescent EFL Students’ Writing Skill Development: Insights From Assessment Data

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to investigate the developmental writing patterns of English as a foreign language (EFL) students across different score levels through a TOEFL Junior® writing task. The sample of this study comprised 2,016 young adolescent EFL students, ranging from 10 to 15 years old, who took the TOEFL Junior test. We performed a detailed analysis of student essays to identify possible patterns in the development of young adolescent EFL students’ academic writing ability. Linguistic characteristics, such as lexical, syntactic, and discourse features, as well as organizational and content features specific to the argumentative writing genre, were examined by using automated writing evaluation tools and human ratings. The results of descriptive statistics, significance testing, and regression analyses yielded notable patterns for linguistic accuracy and complexity variables. Certain linguistic and content-related features also were found to be highly associated with the writing quality of the young EFL students in the sample. Implications for the instruction and assessment of young adolescent EFL students’ academic writing ability are discussed.

Using Restorative Practices to Prepare Teachers to Meet the Needs of Young Adolescents

Recent news on school safety and efforts to improve school climate underscores the importance of building positive student relationships and resolving conflict in our nation’s classrooms. Restorative practices are currently gaining credibility and popularity as a means to build classroom and peer relationships. Through a descriptive study, we explored how to model the restorative practice of community circles with teacher candidates to prepare them to use the approach with their future middle school students. We describe how a teacher educator engaged middle-level teacher candidates with community circles in an internship seminar for this purpose. This article illustrates the powerful effects restorative practices had on the teacher candidates’ peer relationships and the connections they made about teaching young adolescent students. We also provide a step-by-step guide for implementing this practice in middle level teacher education programs.