The identification of psychological strengths that foster healthy development in youth has become a major topic of exploration in the field of positive psychology. Gratitude is a trait-like characteristic with qualities indicative of a potential psychological strength that may serve as a protective factor for early adolescents in the face of…

This study examined whether social mistrust in early adolescence was general or referent-specific. We used a multi-trait multi-method approach to examine the validity of mistrust measures across social referents (mistrust toward people in general, toward peers, and toward teachers), using questionnaires and an online task. Sixth graders (N = 1243,…

Understanding factors that influence k-12 students' Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) performance is essential to improving their problem-solving ability. Most studies have focused on the relationship between students' psychological factors and STEM performance and have paid little attention to the relationship between…

Students' effort and emotions are important contributors to math learning. In a recent study evaluating the efficacy of MathSpring, a scalable web-based intelligent tutoring system that provides students with personalized math problems and affective support, system usage data were collected for 804 U.S. 10-12-year-olds. To understand the patterns…

Using a qualitative case study method, we examined how students talked, acted, and felt in structured inquiry in attempt to understand how students' epistemic emotions interact with their engagement in practices. Participants were four 5th graders, and data included audio recordings of the students' talk in structured inquiry for learning a…

This study explores teachers' perspectives on mandala coloring as a therapeutic tool for middle grades students with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs). Employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the research first conducted qualitative interviews with ten experienced teachers, followed by teachers' quantitative assessments of 60…

This study employed a multilevel, three-stage hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) approach to examine the factors influencing homework completion, time, and effort behaviors among middle and high school students. The student-level analysis encompassed a range of variables, including academic achievement, parental education, book ownership, age,…

This study addressed the issue of school alienation (SA) among high school students in Taiwan; SA is believed to contribute to dropout, violence, gangs, and deviant behavior. To measure SA, we propose a four-construct model in this study, comprising powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, and social isolation. Using two studies, an SA scale…

This study examined the school experiences of gifted adolescents and their non-identified peers. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 748 middle and high school students from a large public school district in the Southeastern United States. Students reported on their behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection, relationships with…

In this study, a predictive model is constructed to analyze learners' performance in programming tasks using data of programming behavioral events and behavioral sequences. First, this study identifies behavioral events from log data and applies lag sequence analysis to extract behavioral sequences that reflect learners' programming strategies.…

Students' prosocial behavior is linked to their own and their classmate's engagement in the classroom. This raises the question of through what pathway prosocial behavior is linked to engagement. This study investigates whether early adolescents' peer belonging mediates the relationship between prosocial behavior and classroom engagement. The…

The present study aimed to investigate school-aged children's understanding of emotions of perpetrators and targets of school bullying and whether these vary as a function of children's participant role in a bullying episode. One hundred seventy-six boys and girls, with a mean age of 11 years and 3 months, participated in the study. They were…

The association between the quality of teacher-student relationships and children's psychological adjustment has been mainly studied in Western countries; however, this research topic is gaining more interest in Eastern countries. Based on attachment theory and empirical evidence, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between…

Early warning indicator and intervention systems (EWS) have been promoted to identify students at risk of school underperformance or dropout. Current EWS systems typically include administrative data on attendance, behavior incidents requiring disciplinary action, and course performance. This study tested whether specific emotional and behavioral…

Over the past fifty years, extensive research has examined the influence of causal attributions on cognitions, emotions, and behaviours in educational contexts. However, these studies often relied on inferences about dimensional properties of attributions, and not on students' perceptions of them. This study innovates by directly assessing these…