School engagement involves cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components that overlap conceptually. This conceptual ambiguity has led to measures that have either consisted of one general factor or separate correlated factors. However, neither approach can sufficiently account for both the uniqueness and the overlap of the subcomponents. The…

Students perform better in school to the extent they are able to engage fully, cope adaptively, and bounce back from obstacles and setbacks in their academic work. These three processes, which studies suggest are positively inter-connected, may comprise a self-sustaining system that enables "motivational resilience." Using…

Classroom research has typically focused on the role of teaching practices and the quality of instruction in children's academic performance, motivation and adjustment--in other words, classroom interactions initiated by the teacher. The present article presents a model of classroom interactions initiated by the child, that is, the notion that a…

Chinese and American mothers' beliefs about children's learning and parents' role in it were examined using notions salient in Chinese culture. Mothers from Hong Kong ("n" = 66) and the United States ("n" = 69) indicated their endorsement of the ideas that children's learning reflects children's morality, and parents' support…

This study estimates the causal effects of six corrective actions for children's problem behaviors, comparing four types of longitudinal analyses that correct for pre-existing differences in a cohort of 1,464 4- and 5-year-olds from Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) data. Analyses of residualized gain scores found…

This study examined what kinds of groups can be identified according to students' task-values across four subject domains (languages, math and science, social sciences, practical subjects) and the related gender differences using a person-centered approach. Latent class analysis was applied to classify 638 students (mean age = 15) into four…

This 30-year longitudinal study examined pathways from problematic childhood behavior patterns to future disadvantaged conditions for family environment and child rearing in adulthood. Participants were mothers (n = 328) and fathers (n = 222) with lower income backgrounds participating in the ongoing Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project. Structural…

Age and school-type differences (primary school and three types of secondary school) in self-related beliefs about ability, effort, and difficulty were investigated in a study of 1723 Berlin youth. Consistent with selective ability-stratified schooling, multi-group structural equation models revealed: (1) mean-level belief differences reflecting…

Most acculturation research has been conducted in immigrant settings. The present study examined the generalizability of acculturation models and the adaptiveness of acculturation strategies in another bicultural environment--a colonial setting. The sample included 138 girls (M = 13.8 years) and their parents from Hong Kong, a former British…

The present study compares the relations of family SES and parents' educational expectations during early adolescence with students' self-concept of ability and academic achievement in mathematics and language in two western countries, Switzerland and USA Participants were drawn from two US longitudinal samples, The Michigan Study of Adolescent…