Teachers set the tone for their classrooms, but what teacher beliefs shape students' sense of belonging? We investigate how teachers' mindsets--or their beliefs about learning and school--relate to adolescents' individual and collective reports of classroom belonging. Our pre-registered analyses include a multilevel design of how 1,200 US middle…

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in dramatic changes to the experiences of school for young people around the world as youth and adults navigated changes to instructional format and means of engaging in teaching and learning. School connectedness during the pandemic served a potentially protective role for adolescents during this uncertain time. In…

This study examined beliefs about aggression and self-efficacy for nonviolent responses as mediators of longitudinal relations between exposure to violence and physical aggression. Participants were a predominantly African American (79%) sample of 2705 early adolescents from three middle schools within urban neighborhoods with high rates of…

Bicultural competence, the ability to navigate and alternate between two cultures, is an important developmental competency for Latinx youth. Empirical research has suggested that bicultural competence is associated with positive academic and psychosocial functioning, including higher academic achievement and fewer internalizing and externalizing…

Knowledge about the role of empathy, emotional self-efficacy, and loneliness on early adolescents' depressive symptoms is scarce. The main aims of the study were to investigate the following: (a) the role of empathy and emotional self-efficacy (additive and interactive) on loneliness and depressive symptoms, taking into account gender differences…

This study examined the temporal relation between self-competence and depressive symptoms in a large, diverse, U.S. community sample of 1,344 adolescents (51% female; [x-bar] [subscript age] = 12.73, SD = 0.69, range = 11-14 years). Surveys were administered to seventh- and eighth-grade students at participating high schools in the fall of 2016…

The present study tested whether a reduced number of categories is optimal for assessing mathematics self-efficacy among middle school students using a 6-point Likert-type format or a 0- to 100-point format. Two independent samples of middle school adolescents (N = 1,913) were administered a 24-item Middle School Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale…

Disruptive classroom behaviors are a major schooling dilemma in urban schools. While several contextual and motivational factors have been statistically associated with disruptive classroom behaviors, one overlooked factor has been home-school dissonance. The current study examined the relationship between 260 middle school students' reports of…

This study's purpose was to examine the relations among future orientation, self-esteem, and later adolescent risk behaviors, and to compare two mediational models involving self-esteem versus future orientation as mediators. An ethnically diverse sample of 12- to 14-year-olds (N = 862, 54% female, 53% ethnic minority) was assessed longitudinally.…

This study of 1,601 students in the middle years of schooling (Grades 5-8, each student measured twice, 1 year apart) from 200 classrooms in 44 schools sought to identify factors explaining gains and declines in mathematics engagement at key transition points. In multilevel regression modeling, findings showed that compared with Grade 6 students…

This study seeks to establish the relevance of middle school students' naive beliefs about knowledge and learning in science to their achievement motivation in this domain. A predominantly Hispanic and lower-income sample of 459 middle school students (sixth through eighth grades) completed measures of epistemic beliefs along with several measures…

The results of a survey of 158 teachers and 969 students at 2 elementary and 2 middle schools revealed that middle school teachers and students perceived the school culture as more performance-focused and less task-focused than did elementary school teachers and students. (MDM)