Grade retention is a policy widely accepted by politicians, teachers, parents, and students in Germany, with retention rates equalling as much as 18.78% by age 15 and retentions most often taking place in secondary education (grades 7-8-9; see Fabian, 2020). A large body of international research on grade retention effectiveness exists (e.g., Allen, Chen, Willson, & Hughes, 2009; Xia & Kirby, 2009). Yet, there is a lack of research for the German context (for exceptions, see Ehmke, Sälzer, Pietsch, Drechsel, & Müller, 2017; Marsh, Pekrun, Parker, Murayama, Guo, Dicke, & Lichtenfeld, 2017), which is a hierarchical structured school system with an increasingly diverse student body. Besides, there is a lack of research focussing on socio-emotional effects of grade retention. The aim of this study is to investigate effects of retention in grade 7 on German repeaters’ socioemotional development in grades 8 and 9. We used a subsample of the NEPS-Starting-Cohort 3 (Blossfeld, Roßbach, & von Maurice, 2011). The NEPS-Starting-Cohort 3 students (Nstudents = 6,313; Nschools = 278) attended grade 7 in school year 2012-2013, and were followed for 3 years. Each year, students filled in a questionnaire, tapping among other things their self-concept and motivation in reading. Propensity score matching and two-level linear regression analyses were used to examine effects. Overall, our findings showed no significant differences between repeaters and same-age matched non-repeaters, which seems to indicate that grade 7 repeaters would have fared equally in terms of self-concept and motivation in reading in grade 8 and 9 if promoted instead of been held back.

Allen, C. S., Chen, Q., Willson, V. L., & Hughes, J. N. (2009). Quality of research design moderates effects of grade retention on achievement: A meta-analytic, multi-level analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4), 480-499. Blossfeld, H.-P., Roßbach, G., & von Maurice, J. (Hrsg.) (2011). Education as a lifelong process. The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft – Sonderheft 2/2011. Wiesbaden: VS. Ehmke, T., Sälzer, C., Pietsch, M., Drechsel, B., & Müller, K. (2017). Kompetenzentwicklung im Schuljahr nach PISA 2012: Effekte von Klassenwiederholungen. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 20(2), 99-124. Fabian, P. (2020). Leistungskonsolidierung, Leistungssteigerung – oder etwas ganz anderes? Die Effekte einer Klassenwiederholung auf die Leistungsentwicklung. Münster: Waxmann. Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Parker, P. D. Murayama, K., Guo, J., Dicke, T., & Lichtenfeld, S. (2017). Long-term positive effects of repeating a year in school: Six-year longitudinal study of self-beliefs, anxiety, social relations, school grades, and test scores. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(3), 425-438. Xia, N., Kirby, S. N. (2009). Retaining students in grade: A literature review of the effects of retention on students' academic and nonacademic outcomes. Technical Report. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.