The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between academic achievement and attendance. Reading proficiency is foundational to overall academic success. In this study, reading proficiency served as the operational definition for the level of student academic success. Out-of-school suspension is a disciplinary consequence as a result…

This study examined relations between student engagement and drug use using data obtained from the statewide biennial California Healthy Kids Survey. Latent variable modeling with confirmatory factor analysis indicated four conceptually distinct and psychometrically sound factors capturing academic motivation, school connectedness, caring…

A dual-factor model (DFM) of mental health conceptualizes complete mental health as both low levels of psychopathology and high levels of subjective well-being (SWB). Although middle adolescence (ages 14 to 18 years old) is associated with increases in symptoms of psychopathology and declines in SWB, further research is needed to understand how…

School engagement has been identified as an important construct associated with student achievement, school completion, and more recently, student well-being. The present study included data from 200 ninth grade students of diverse ethnic groups (African American, Hispanic, & White) to explore dimensions of student wellness and their…

This study examined the extent to which boys fell into clusters comprised of different levels of motivations and costs. In turn, the antecedents of these clusters and associations with engagement and wellbeing outcomes were considered. Based on survey responses from 168 students across Years 5, 7 and 9 from an all-boys' school in Sydney,…

School learning starts with school attendance. Students need to be in school to receive instruction and learn from their teachers and peers. When schools have high rates of poor attendance, their academic achievement levels suffer. Ninth grade is a critical juncture that comes with increased student autonomy -- and new pitfalls, including the…

This study employed hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the student- and school-level factors associated with the secondary mathematics achievement of English language learners (ELLs) and non-ELL students among a nationally representative sample of ninth graders in the United States. While certain characteristics, such as socioeconomic…

Hope--a multidimensional positive motivational state--is particularly salient with adolescents in the school setting. Cognitive hope focuses on goal attainment cognitions whereas behavioral hope focuses on actions required for goal attainment. Studies rarely examine the contribution of each type of hope to adolescents' academic functioning and…

During school closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, remote/online learning has been adopted to help students continue to learn. Student engagement, which is energized by motivation as explained by self-determination theory (SDT), is a prerequisite for learning. Therefore, this study investigated how the three perceived psychological needs in…

Among a sample of 472 Indigenous high school students, juxtaposed with 15,884 non-Indigenous students from the same 54 schools, we investigated variation in motivation and engagement from school to school, and the role of motivation and engagement in predicting various academic outcomes (aspirations, buoyancy, homework completion, and…

Identifying struggling students in real-time provides a virtual learning environment with an opportunity to intervene meaningfully with supports aimed at improving student learning and engagement. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of quit prediction modeling in students playing a learning game called Physics Playground. From the…

Intellectual engagement (IE) refers to enjoyment of intellectual activities and is proposed as causal for knowledge acquisition. The role of IE for cognitive development was examined utilizing 2-year longitudinal data from 112 ninth graders (average baseline age: 14.7 years). Higher baseline IE predicted higher baseline crystallized ability but…

We examined the impact of adolescents' popularity motivations on their involvement in relational aggression perpetration and victimization, heavy drinking, and antiauthority behavior, while also considering the role of teens' perception of their own popularity and psychosocial adjustment. High school students (N = 986; 50% female; M[subscript age]…

Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students' low test-taking motivation and that…

Drawing on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the unique contributions of the four major value beliefs and self-concept on achievement, self-reported effort, and teacher-rated behavioral engagement in mathematics. In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of self-concept and task values on educational outcomes using…