Côté-Lussier Carolyn, Fitzpatrick Caroline
Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; International Centre for Comparative Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; PERFORM Centre, Department of Exercise Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Département des sciences humaines, Université Sainte-Anne, Pointe-de-L'Église, Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada.
J Adolesc Health. 2016 May;58(5):543-50. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.01.003. Epub 2016 Mar 12.
Classroom engagement is a key indicator of student motivation, learning potential, and the eventual probability of persisting to high-school completion. This study investigated whether feeling unsafe at school interferes with classroom engagement and simultaneously considered whether this association is mediated by poorer student well-being in the form of experiencing symptoms of depression and demonstrating aggressive behavior problems.
Data were from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, an ongoing study that began in 1998 with a population-based cohort of 2,120 Quebec 5-month-old infants. Structural equation modeling was used to test the central hypothesis that concurrent youth self-reported feelings of a lack of safety at school are associated with poorer teacher-reported student classroom engagement (at age 13 years) and the mediating role of emotional and behavioral problems. The model controlled for concurrent measures of victimization, the school safety climate, and earlier measures of students' academic adjustment.
The findings support the central hypothesis that youth who feel safer at school are also more engaged in the classroom (p ≤ .05). Students who felt safer demonstrated less depressive symptoms, but this only partly explained the association between feeling safe and being engaged.
Increasing student feelings of safety at school (e.g., by reducing victimization, improving the overall school and neighborhood safety climate) is likely to represent an effective strategy for promoting classroom engagement. Such interventions could also contribute to future academic achievement and high-school completion and decrease symptoms of mental health problems among youth.
课堂参与度是学生学习动力、学习潜力以及最终完成高中学业可能性的关键指标。本研究调查了在学校感到不安全是否会干扰课堂参与度，同时探讨这种关联是否通过抑郁症状和攻击性行为问题等较差的学生幸福感来介导。
数据来自魁北克儿童发展纵向研究，该研究始于1998年，以2120名魁北克5个月大婴儿的人群为队列进行持续研究。采用结构方程模型来检验核心假设，即青少年自我报告的在校缺乏安全感与教师报告的较差的学生课堂参与度（13岁时）相关，以及情绪和行为问题的中介作用。该模型控制了同时期的受害情况、学校安全氛围以及学生学业适应的早期测量指标。
研究结果支持核心假设，即在学校感到更安全的青少年在课堂上也更积极参与（p≤.05）。感到更安全的学生表现出较少的抑郁症状，但这只是部分解释了安全感与参与度之间的关联。
提高学生在学校的安全感（例如，通过减少受害情况、改善整体学校和社区安全氛围）可能是促进课堂参与度的有效策略。此类干预措施还可能有助于未来的学业成就和高中学业完成，并减少青少年心理健康问题的症状。
