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Research has shown that parental pressure is negatively whereas parental support is positively associated with various scholastic outcomes, such as school engagement, motivation, and achievement. However, only few studies investigate boys' and girls' perception of mother and father pressure/support in detail. This might be particularly essential when it comes to girls' and boys' achievement in STEM subjects, as girls and boys might profit differently from parental pressure/support regarding their achievement in STEM and vice versa. This study aims to shed light on this topic and explores potential within—and over time associations between students' perception of parental pressure/support and grades in mathematics and biology. Using self-report data from 1,088 8th grade students at T1 (Mage = 13.70, SD = 0.53, 54% girls) from Brandenburg, Germany, multigroup cross-lagged models were conceptualized with Mplus. The results indicate that there are gender differences in the interplay of students' grades in mathematics, biology, and their perception of parental pressure and support: Whereas, mother support plays a central beneficial role for girls' achievement in STEM subjects as well as for the other parental variables over time, for boys mother support is negatively associated with math performance over time. Within-time associations further show that boys—in contrast to girls—do not benefit from any parental support regarding their performance in mathematics or biology. Finally, results suggest that the relationship between adolescents' STEM achievement and parental pressure/support is rather mono-directional than bi-directional over time.
The first part of my work comprises empirical findings and theoretical foundations on stress in its historical development and socio-emotional and behavioural factors.
The first study of my dissertation focuses on the relationship between perceived stress in adolescence, the context variables of perceived helpfulness and competition and socio-emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties (i.e., emotional problems, symptoms of hyperactivity, problems with peers, prosocial behaviour and conduct problems) from early to middle adolescence. I postulated a moderation or mediation of the effect of perceived stress on socio-emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties through the two context variables. My hypotheses were tested using a latent moderating structural equation model (moderation analysis) and a multi-group structural equation model taking into account the gender and age of the students (mediation analysis). The theoretical basis of my first study is the transactional stress model by Lazarus and Folkman (1984).
The second study of my dissertation is dedicated to the question whether perceived stress is a moderator in the relationship between depressive symptoms in early adolescence and socio-emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties in middle adolescence. Based on the cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress theory of Hankin and Abramson (2001), which assumes reciprocal and dynamic relationships between the individual and the environment, I investigated this question and tested the relationships using a latent moderating structural equation model.
The third study of my dissertation is based on Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model (1975). Using a cross-lagged panel design, I investigate the within time and longitudinal relationships between variables of emotional (in-)stability (i.e., depressive symptoms, perceived stress and loneliness) and socio-environmental factors (i.e., sense of belonging, student-student and teacher-student-relationship) from early to middle adolescence.
At the end of my work there is a summary of all results, a discussion and an outlook for future research.