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Background
This study examines the relationship between adolescents’ biophysiological stress (i.e. cortisol, alpha-amylase and oxidative stress) and the development of grit and school engagement over one school year.
Aims
The study aims to identify how objective stress affects grit and three dimensions of school engagement. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the study considers lower- and higher-track school students and their genders.
Sample
The sample consists of secondary school students (N = 82; MAge = 13.71; SD = 0.67; 48% girls) from Germany.
Methods
Students participated in a questionnaire and a biophysiological study in the first semester (t1) of the school year and completed the same questionnaire at the end of the school year (t2). After conducting whole-sample analysis, a multi-group cross-lagged panel model was calculated to identify differences among students at lower- and higher-track schools.
Results
Whole-sample analysis reveals that students who exhibit high levels of cortisol report lower cognitive school engagement at t2, whereas students who exhibit high levels of alpha-amylase exhibit less grit at t2. Additionally, lower-track students who exhibited high cortisol levels reported lower cognitive and emotional school engagement throughout the school year. Furthermore, higher-track students with high oxidative stress levels reported lower grit and behavioural school engagement at t2.
Conclusions
Examining the relationship between biophysiological stress markers and grit and school engagement of students at lower- and higher-track schools indicates that the educational context and its specific subculture shapes physiological stress reactions, which are related differently to grit and engagement dimensions.
This study investigates the relations between working environment and teachers' job satisfaction, perceived work‐related stress, as well as work‐related self‐efficacy. The sample consisted of 226 mathematics teachers from German secondary schools. About 55% were female and they had been teaching for 13 years on average. We used self‐reported measures to assess how teachers perceived their working environment (regarding autonomy, feedback, and social support by colleagues), administrative leadership and teachers' work‐related self‐efficacy, as well as job satisfaction and work‐related stress. Structural equation modeling demonstrates that teachers' job satisfaction and stress were significantly associated with self‐efficacy (moderate to large effects) and an administrative leadership at the corresponding schools (small to moderate effects). The effect of social support on teachers' job satisfaction and stress was fully mediated by teachers' self‐efficacy. Our findings underscore the importance of self‐efficacy and a positive working environment for teachers' job satisfaction and stress.
Abstract
Background
In the present study, we investigated the association between sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) and telomere length (TL), which is considered a biomarker of cellular aging. SPS is an individual characteristic describing increased perception and procession of inner or outer stimuli, and is positively related to self‐perceived stress.
Methods
We recruited 82 healthy adolescents aged 13–16 from secondary schools in Germany. SPS was measured with the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, and TL was determined by a multiplex quantitative PCR method.
Results
Our results show that students with higher values of SPS are likely to have shorter telomeres (β = 0.337, p = .001), when adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status, age, and body mass index. These findings are also independent of the negative impact of stress students might have perceived shortly before data collection.
Conclusions
Our analysis suggests that students who struggle with low sensory threshold are likely to have shorter telomeres.
Do Belonging and Social Exclusion at School Affect Structural Brain Development During Adolescence?
(2021)
Students’ sense of belonging presents an essential resource for academic and health outcomes, whereas social exclusion at school negatively impacts students’ well‐being and academic performance. Aiming to understand how feelings of school‐related belonging and exclusion shape the structural brain development, this study applied longitudinal questionnaire‐based data and MRI data from 71 adolescent students (37 females, Mage at t1 = 15.0; t2 = 16.1 years). All were white participants from Germany. Voxel‐based morphometry revealed only an association of social exclusion (and not of belonging) and gray matter volume in the left anterior insula: From t1 to t2, there was less gray matter decrease, the more social exclusion students perceived. School‐related social exclusion and disturbed neurodevelopment are thus significantly associated.