School motivation and attachment typically decline after the transition to middle school. According to the stage-environment fit approach, extracurricular activities are supposed to promote motivation. However, research has shown that the effects depend on the quality of the activities, which usually is measured by assessing students' individual…

This article reports on the findings of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research project, "Building the future for Indigenous students", an investigation of the hopes and dreams for the future of over 1,000 secondary students, 733 of whom were Indigenous, living in very remote, remote, and urban locations in the Northern…

This study sought to understand the perspectives of four youth with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFA) regarding their experiences in Singapore secondary schools. Qualitative analyses of in-depth interviews revealed that youth with HFA actively construct their experience of being a person with HFA. The extent to which the youth were…

Background: Children with vague complaints are without chronic illness, and who repeatedly visit the school nurse may be at risk for limited academic success. This study compares student reports of subjective well-being between children who do and do not repeatedly visit the school nurse with vague complaints. Methods: Children in grades 4 through…

To examine disparities in education, the researcher utilized a naturalistic approach to uncover how youth think, talk, and feel about their response to schooling. Findings are based on in-depth conversations with 12 inner city African-American kids enrolled in Urban, USA middle and high schools, rarely heard from in the scholarly literature.…

Charter schools have grown rapidly in the last 20 years since the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1991 and has become one of the most popular alternatives in public schools (Center for Education Reform, 2007). Parents may possess various reasons for choosing one charter school over another, or choosing them over traditional public…

Over the past three decades, more and more students are expressing a desire to attend college, yet for many members of disenfranchised groups, this goal is often not attained. While many factors contribute to these disparities, research has shown that students begin adjusting their expectations (what they think they can achieve) for the future in…

This study examined adolescents' perception of satisfaction from various life domains according to gender and parenting styles among 562 Turkish adolescents [53.2% girls; Mean (M) age = 14.1, Standard Deviation (SD) = 0.85]. The participants completed the multidimensional students' life satisfaction scale and the parenting style inventory. The…

Purpose: To examine the longitudinal association between communication impairment (primary or secondary diagnosis) and children's Activities and Participation (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth [ICF-CY]; World Health Organization [WHO], 2007). Method: Participants were 4,329 children in the…

"The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles" presents findings from the first large-scale study to examine how the levels and types of risk youth face may influence their relationships with program-assigned mentors and the benefits they derive from these relationships. The study looked…

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) influences students' school perceptions and affects their performance, engagement, and personal beliefs. This study examined the effects of school population SES and school resources on the association between student SES and student perceptions. Methods: School liking, classmate social relationships, family…

The study aimed to empirically verify findings from qualitative studies that showed selective consumers could be distinguished from underachievers with regard to academic self-perception and thinking style preference. Participants, gifted males from an independent secondary boys' school in Sydney, Australia, were categorized as achieving,…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K)--a large, nationally representative sample of US elementary school students, we employed multilevel analysis to answer the following research questions: (a) Does students' mathematics achievement growth in grades K-3 vary among schools? (b) To what extent does…

This study contributes to a growing body of literature focused on the role of the teacher's "invisible hand" in managing students social relationships. The authors focus on one specific aspect of attunement, teachers' social network knowledge, which they conceptualize as the completeness and accuracy of the teacher's social network…

Every year, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds drop out of school and attempt to enter the work force without any specialized training. The purpose of this study was to understand if dropout prevention programs change a potential dropout's attitude toward school in a public school district. A quantitative, quasi-experimental…