Most primary-secondary transitions research articles neither clearly define nor operationalise transitions, and nine conceptualisations appear across the 96-article literature¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · theoretical r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Most authors of the 96 included articles had neither clearly defined nor operationalised primary-secondary transitions. → Bagnall 2025 q2 i? Discourse analysis of the 96 articles identified nine conceptualisations of primary-secondary transitions. → Bagnall 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Bagnall 2025¶

Bagnall, C. L., Jindal-Snape, D., Banwell, E., Panayiotou, M., Mason, C., & Qualter, P. (2025). Emotional Wellbeing in the Context of Primary-Secondary School Transitions: A Concept Analysis Paper. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-09990-6

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

Systematic mapping review of 96 primary-secondary transitions articles published 2008-2018, reported in this paper's background synthesis. The review found that "most of the authors of the 96 included articles had neither clearly defined nor operationalised transitions".

"They found that most of the authors of the 96 included articles had neither clearly defined nor operationalised transitions"

Bagnall 2025 (2)¶

Bagnall, C. L., Jindal-Snape, D., Banwell, E., Panayiotou, M., Mason, C., & Qualter, P. (2025). Emotional Wellbeing in the Context of Primary-Secondary School Transitions: A Concept Analysis Paper. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-09990-6

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

Discourse analysis of the same 96 articles, focusing on words used, research design, and use of theory, identified nine conceptualisations ranging from change (54 articles) to turning points (3 articles), as printed in Table 1.

"After a rigorous cross-check by the research team, they identified nine conceptualisation/s of primary-secondary transitions (see Table 1)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In the 60-article review of quantitative transitions studies, 50 articles did not explicitly conceptualise wellbeing, and seven factors were associated with emotional wellbeing across 38 articles — related
• There is a need for a standardised, validated wellbeing instrument suitable for longitudinal use to evaluate primary-secondary transitions interventions — related
• Transitioning to secondary school alongside primary school peers helped children settle, while transitioning without peers could lead to difficult transitions — related
• Discourse about primary-secondary school transitions in the literature is predominantly negative, with only 2% of studies using a predominantly positive discourse — related