National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI), Via Ippolito Nievo, 35, 00153, Rome, Italy.
Department of Human, Philosophical and Educational Sciences, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084, Fisciano, SA, Italy.
J Adolesc. 2019 Oct;76:99-108. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.08.011. Epub 2019 Aug 30.
During adolescence, experiencing positive emotions at school is important for motivation as well as for academic success and psychological well-being. In the present study, on the basis of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we investigated the relationships between sociocultural factors (gender, immigrant and socioeconomic background), peer relatedness (acceptance and friendship) and positive affect at school.
Data was based on a random sample of 36,712 tenth grade Italian adolescents. Their average age was 15.6 years (SD = 0.77), 50.6% were males, while 6.1% were first-generation immigrants and 3.8% were second-generation immigrants. Firstly, comparing latent means, we established peer relatedness and positive affect profiles of adolescents with different sociocultural backgrounds. Subsequently, we tested a structural equation model, based on SDT, according to which the effects of sociocultural factors on experiencing positive affect at school are mediated by peer relatedness dimensions.
Latent mean comparisons showed that immigrant adolescents, students with a lower-SES and girls had fewer friendships with their classmates, lower levels of positive affect at school and were less accepted by their peers. A well-fitting structural equation model corroborated the mediating role of acceptance and friendship, which accounted for 16% of variance in positive affect.
Due to sociocultural factors, some groups of adolescents proved to be more at risk of being socially excluded and of experiencing less positive affect at school. Moreover, our findings support the claim of SDT that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, such as relatedness, is more important than sociocultural factors in determining adolescents' psychological well-being.
在青春期，在学校体验积极情绪对动机、学业成功和心理健康都很重要。在本研究中，我们基于自我决定理论（SDT），调查了社会文化因素（性别、移民和社会经济背景）、同伴关系（接纳和友谊）与学校积极情绪之间的关系。
数据基于意大利 36712 名十年级青少年的随机样本。他们的平均年龄为 15.6 岁（SD=0.77），其中 50.6%是男性，6.1%是第一代移民，3.8%是第二代移民。首先，通过比较潜在均值，我们确定了具有不同社会文化背景的青少年的同伴关系和积极情绪特征。随后，我们根据 SDT 测试了一个结构方程模型，根据该模型，社会文化因素对学校积极情绪体验的影响是通过同伴关系维度来中介的。
潜在均值比较表明，移民青少年、社会经济地位较低的学生和女孩与同学的友谊较少，在学校的积极情绪较低，受到同伴的接纳程度也较低。一个拟合良好的结构方程模型证实了接纳和友谊的中介作用，它们解释了积极情绪的 16%的方差。
由于社会文化因素，一些青少年群体更容易受到社会排斥，在学校体验到较少的积极情绪。此外，我们的研究结果支持了 SDT 的观点，即基本心理需求（如关系）的满足比社会文化因素更能决定青少年的心理健康。
