Student Behavioral Disengagement, School Truancy And Burnout In Finnish Junior High Schools: latent profile analysis

Author(s):

Tuomo Virtanen(presenting / submitting)Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen Anna-Maija Poikkeus Matti Kuorelahti

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 07 A, Inclusive Teaching

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

17:15-18:45

Room:

B013 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Sara Felizardo

Contribution

Student disengagement from education causes concern among educators across developed nations, as it has negative consequences for disengaged individuals themselves and society as a whole. A significant number of young people become disengaged from school during their compulsory education (Balfanz, Herzog, & Mac Iver, 2007; Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kindermann, 2008), and they fail to continue to post compulsory education. OECD statistics show that in 2010, an average of 8 per cent of young people aged between15 to 19 were not in education, employment or training (OECD, 2012). Students’ patterns of school engagement vary and they are associated with different school and post school outcomes (e.g., Maynard, Salas-Wright, Vaughn, & Peters, 2012; Wang & Peck, 2013). Highly engaged students’ person-environment fit (Eccles & Roeser, 2011) is good, and they meet the academic and behavioral demands of school. They value school as an important place for their future endeavors and experience positive relations with their peers and teachers. Consequently, they are more likely to perform academically and nonacademically better than disengaged students whose person-environment fit may be far from optimal. These students may feel exhausted, inadequate and cynical and they may end up skipping lessons. In order to better address the problems associated with student disengagement, deepened understanding of student heterogeneity is needed.

The aim of the study was two-fold. First, the present study used multidimensional and person-centered approaches (Bergman & Andersson, 2010) to identify subgroups of Finnish junior high school students characterized by unique patterns of behavioral disengagement, school truancy, and school burnout (feelings of school-related exhaustion, cynicism toward schoolwork, and feelings of inadequacy as a student). Second, the factors explaining the subgroups were examined.

Method

The data were collected in fall term 2013 on 2494 students (mean age 14.7, SD = .92 years, 52.2 % females) from eight volunteering typical Finnish public junior high schools (grades 7, 8, and 9). The instruments used were: Behavioral disengagement. Student behavioral disengagement was measured with the middle school student version of the Research Assessment Package for Schools (RAPS-SM: Wellborn & Connell, 1987). The five-item RAPS scale assesses the extent to which students exert effort in their schoolwork, pay attention in class, and prepare for classes (e.g., “I don’t try very hard in school” on four-point Likert scale). School truancy. Self-reported truancy was measured with two items. The first item “I play truant from school” measured school truancy on a general level on five-point Likert scale. The second item “How many full school days have you been absent during the previous 30 days because of truancy?” (four-point Likert scale) was taken from the Finnish School Health Promotion Study (National Institute for Health and Welfare, 2008). School burnout. School burnout was measured with the Bergen Burnout Indicator (BBI-10: Salmela-Aro & Näätänen, 2005). BBI-10 assesses students’ self-reported school-related exhaustion (four items, e.g., “I feel overwhelmed by my schoolwork”), cynicism (three items, e.g., “I feel a lack of motivation in my schoolwork and often think of giving up”), and inadequacy (three items, e.g., “I often have feelings of inadequacy in my schoolwork”) using six-point Likert scale. Perceived support. Student experiences of support were rated using the psychological engagement subscales of the Student Engagement Instrument (the SEI: Appleton et al., 2006). They include items rated on four-point Likert scale on student perceived teacher support (nine items; e.g., “At my school, teachers care about students.”), family/guardians’ support (four items; e.g., “My family/guardian(s) are there for me when I need them”), and peer support (six items; e.g., “Other students at school care about me”). Self-esteem. Students’ general self-esteem was assessed with Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The scale consists of five four-point Likert scale items with positively worded statements (e.g., “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself”) and five items with negatively worded statements (e.g., “At times, I think I am no good at all”) about the self. Additionally, we included in the model covariates such as students' gender, special education status, perceived family socio-economic status, age, student-reported academic performance, and educational aspirations after basic education.

Expected Outcomes

The latent profile analysis (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012) identified four distinct classes: Truants (7.9%), Burned-outs (10.9%), Highly engaged (38.9%), and Moderately engaged (42.3%). The group differences regarding behavioral disengagement, school truancy, and school burnout were large in magnitude (η2 varied between .21 and .68) favoring moderately and highly engaged students. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that school-related processes and students’ self-esteem were more predictive of latent class membership than status factors. For instance, the odds of being in the highly engaged group compared to belonging to the truants’ group was over ten times higher for students with high self-esteem than those with low self-esteem. The respective odds ratio for student-reported teacher-student relationships was almost six. Out of status factors, receiving special education held a risk of belonging to truants’ latent classes, as burned-outs, highly engaged and moderately engaged students tended to be those students not receiving special education. In conclusion, the results showed that the majority of Finnish junior high school students fit the school context well, while about one fifth of students’ person-environment fit was far from optimal. The truants’ negative attitude toward school manifested mainly in external misbehavior and school truancy. Instead, burned-out students were behaviorally more persistent, but this occurred at the expense of high level of internal symptoms (school burnout) and low self-esteem. Preventing these students from falling into a downward spiral of disengagement requires individualized interventions as students show different levels of engagement and school burnout (“One size does not fit all”). Truants and burned-out students may benefit from easing their workload at school, providing them with intensified teacher support, and improving their self-esteem with positive feedback.

References

Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. L. (2006). Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: Validation of the student engagement instrument. Journal of School Psychology, 44(5), 427-445. Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., & Mac Iver, D. J. (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist, 42(4), 223-235. Bergman, L. R., & Andersson, H. (2010). The person and the variable in developmental psychology. Journal of Psychology, 218(3), 155-165. Eccles, J. S., & Roeser, R. W. (2011). Schools as developmental contexts during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 225-241. Maynard, B. R., Salas-Wright, C. P., Vaughn, M. G., & Peters, K. E. (2012). Who are truant youth? examining distinctive profiles of truant youth using latent profile analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(12), 1671-1684. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998-2012). Mplus user’s guide. (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén. National Institute for Health and Welfare. (2008). Finnish school health promotion study. kouluterveys [school health]. Retrieved October/28, 2010, from http://info.stakes.fi/kouluterveyskysely/FI/tulokset/taulukot2008/koulutyo08.htm OECD. (2012). Education at a glance. OECD publishing. Retrieved November 25, 2013, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2012-en Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton (N.J.) Salmela-Aro, K., & Näätänen, P. (2005). Nuorten koulu-uupumusmittari BBI-10 [adolescents' school burnout inventory]. Helsinki: Edita. Skinner, E. A., Furrer, C. J., Marchand, G., & Kindermann, T. A. (2008). Engagement and disaffection in the classroom: Part of a larger motivational dynamic? Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 765-781. Wang, M., & Peck, S. C. (2013). Adolescent educational success and mental health vary across school engagement profiles. Developmental Psychology, 49(7), 1266-1276. Wellborn, J. G., & Connell, J. P. (1987). Manual for the rochester assessment package for schools. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester.

Author Information

Tuomo Virtanen (presenting / submitting)

University of Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä

Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Anna-Maija Poikkeus

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Matti Kuorelahti

University of Jyväskylä

Department of Education

University of Jyväskylä

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