Integrate family and school contexts in interventions and promote adolescent academic self-regulation to support the high school transition¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors recommend prevention and intervention programs that integrate family, school, and individual domains rather than targeting them in isolation, because the domains are interdependent and improvements in one bolster the others. They specifically advise that "efforts to promote adolescent ASR through school and family contexts are likely to be well-served in promoting a successful transition to high school". Suggested approaches include family-school collaboration and embedding family-centered interventions within schools.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Interventions must address family and school domains together, since the study found interdependencies among the three domains

Constraints¶

• Evidence base is a primarily White, rural sample; the authors state replication with more diverse samples is needed

Target Learners¶

• early adolescents in middle school transitioning to high school

Target Learning Goals¶

• academic self-regulation
• school adjustment
• academic achievement

Claims¶

• Academic self-regulation in 8th grade robustly predicts both GPA and school adjustment in 9th grade [+W]
• Positive family climate consistently predicts increases in adolescent academic self-regulation, with unidirectional effects [+W]
• Family climate and school attachment exert reciprocal positive influences on each other over the middle school years [+W]
• School attachment unidirectionally predicts increases in academic self-regulation over the middle school years [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Target emotion regulation skills in middle and high school youth to close the gap between emotional and cognitive control systems
• Start early: foster a positive math climate at home and school to prevent the distal avoidance pathway
• Interventions should simultaneously enhance academic self-concept and achievement

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Xia, M., Fosco, G. M., & Feinberg, M. E. (2016). Examining Reciprocal Influences Among Family Climate, School Attachment, and Academic Self-Regulation: Implications for School Success. Journal of Family Psychology, 30(4), 442-452. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000141