University of Mannheim, Department of Educational Psychology, Germany.
University of Mannheim, Department of Educational Psychology, Germany.
J Sch Psychol. 2019 Aug;75:41-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2019.06.002. Epub 2019 Jul 4.
Disadvantaged students who or whose parents immigrated (i.e., migration background) and first-generation students (i.e., non-academic background) have a higher risk of dropping out of school or university, earning poor grades, and facing mental health problems. This is likely in part a result of their impaired sense of belonging (e.g., feeling accepted and valued by peers and others) at educational institutions. In the current study, we tested the effectiveness of a belonging intervention that aims to reduce social disparities in sense of belonging-for the first time outside North America. Past research has demonstrated that the intervention supports disadvantaged students during the transition to middle school as well as to university. The intervention, at its core, is a brief reading-writing-exercise, which teaches that worries about belonging are common among freshmen and diminish over time. We conducted a pre-post-follow-up randomized control study with 86 freshmen (34.9% academic background, 44.2% non-academic background, 20.9% migration background). The intervention had differential effects on sense of belonging and self-reported grades after the first semester: For students without a migration background, the intervention had lasting positive effects on belonging; for students with a migration background, the positive effect diminished over time. Further, compared to students without a migration background, students with a migration background reported worse grades in the control condition and similar grades in the intervention condition. In addition, the intervention had positive-but no differential-effects on depression symptoms: students in the intervention group experienced less fluctuation and lower levels of depression symptoms than in the control group. The intervention had no significant effects on intentions to persist and emotional burden after six months. In sum, we found that the presented brief psychological intervention, adapted for the students with migration background, is effective but needs further customization to achieve positive and lasting outcomes.
弱势群体学生，无论是移民背景（即移民背景）还是第一代学生（即非学术背景），都有更高的辍学或退学风险、成绩不佳和面临心理健康问题的风险。这在一定程度上是由于他们在教育机构中归属感受损（例如，被同龄人及其他人接受和重视）。在当前的研究中，我们测试了归属感干预措施的有效性，这是首次在北美以外的地区进行的归属感干预措施的测试。过去的研究表明，该干预措施在学生从中学过渡到大学期间为弱势学生提供了支持。该干预措施的核心是一项简短的读写练习，教导新生对归属感的担忧是普遍存在的，并且随着时间的推移会逐渐减少。我们进行了一项前后随访的随机对照研究，共有 86 名新生（学术背景 34.9%，非学术背景 44.2%，移民背景 20.9%）参与。该干预措施在第一学期后对归属感和自我报告成绩产生了不同的影响：对于没有移民背景的学生，干预措施对归属感有持久的积极影响；对于有移民背景的学生，积极影响随着时间的推移而减弱。此外，与没有移民背景的学生相比，有移民背景的学生在对照组的成绩较差，而在干预组的成绩相似。此外，干预措施对抑郁症状有积极影响，但没有差异：干预组的学生比对照组的学生经历的波动较小，抑郁症状水平较低。干预措施在六个月后对坚持意愿和情绪负担没有显著影响。总之，我们发现，为具有移民背景的学生量身定制的这种简短的心理干预措施是有效的，但需要进一步定制，以实现积极和持久的效果。
