An update on the study of playfulness in adolescents: its relationship with academic performance, well-being, anxiety, and roles in bullying-type-situations Abstract Playfulness is an individual differences variable at the trait-level. It describes the ability to experience or (re)frame everyday situations as stimulating, interesting, and/or entertaining. Playfulness in adolescents is understudied. We collected self-report data on four facets of playfulness (other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual, and whimsical) in two German-speaking samples of adolescents (N1 = 210, N2 = 270; age range 13–18 years). The facets correlated positively, but to varying degrees with life satisfaction (social life, self, friends) and intrinsic goals. There was no relationship with self-reported school grades and achievement goals (Sample 1). Playfulness in girls was associated with peer-nominated (classmates) bullying behaviors and victimization status (Sample 2). Overall, the findings show that playfulness has an impact on various domains of the life of adolescents. We discuss directions for further research in the field.

Middle school students' perceptions of school climate, bullying prevalence, and social support and coping Abstract The aim of this exploratory study was to examine middle school students’ (N = 88) perceptions of bullying, school climate and social support and coping. Data were collected using online surveys (n = 80) and face-to-face interviews (n = 8). Quantitative analyses revealed that prevalence of teasing, victimization, and bullying experiences significantly predicted perceptions of school climate. Qualitative findings provided further insight into student perceptions of bullying indicating several overlapping themes, when examining victimization, verbal and social bullying, causes of bullying, coping, and frustration with school resources dealing with aggressive behavior. Recommendations for addressing potential detrimental outcomes of bullying behavior and for improving perceptions of school climate are provided.

The ethnic match between students and teachers: evidence from a vignette study Abstract The ethnic match between teachers and students is widely believed to be beneficial for the achievement of ethnic minority students, who often lag behind their ethnic majority peers. In a quasi-experimental vignette study, we investigated whether preservice teachers who shared the same ethnic background as the student in the vignette had different judgments of the achievement, working and learning habits, and other social variables of the target student than ethnic majority preservice teachers and preservice teachers who had an ethnic minority background different from that of the student. Additionally, we asked about the causes of ethnic disparities. The preservice teachers who shared the same ethnic background as the target student more favorably judged the student’s language proficiency in his mother tongue and perceived the student as more proficient in mathematics, science, and general competence than the two other teacher groups. Moreover, the causal attributions showed that the preservice teachers with the same background as the target student generally perceived the causes of the student’s lower school success as multifaceted. The results reveal that simply having a teacher with an ethnic minority background is not sufficient for benefitting ethnic minority students. Only teachers who have the same ethnic background as the students might contribute to the reduction of ethnic disparities in school.

Using an egalitarian social norms message to improve attitudes toward diversity in an academic context: examining intended and unintended effects of source and recipient gender Abstract Social psychologists have leveraged social norms messaging about prejudice to improve social climates. Less research, however, has explored how social identities of message sources and recipients (e.g., gender) influence receptivity to these messages. Testing for the effects of source and recipient social identity on message receptivity is not just of theoretical importance, but also has practical implications for who can effectively deliver such messages and whether such messages have unintended negative consequences for disadvantaged group members. In the present research, an experimental design explored whether the effectiveness of an egalitarian social norms message (compared to a control message) depended on source gender, recipient gender, and their interaction, as well as whether the egalitarian social norms message had unintended negative consequences for participants. Results of an experiment with undergraduate participants (N = 434) showed that receiving an egalitarian social norms message (compared to a control message) resulted in more positive diversity attitudes and stronger intentions to confront prejudice, and these effects did not depend on source gender. The egalitarian social norms message, compared to the control message, did not have detrimental effects on members of socially disadvantaged groups, and was evaluated as more beneficial for social climate. Implications for intervention are discussed.

A longitudinal study of factors predicting students’ intentions to leave upper secondary school in Norway Abstract This article illuminates factors predicting students’ intention to leave upper secondary school. The research is anchored in an ecological theoretical perspective that considers dropout as a multifaceted phenomenon that culminates in the decision to leave school. Based on this, we have used a longitudinal research design to investigate to what extent factors related to students’ experiences predict their intention to leave school early. The sample in this study comprises 1695 students from upper secondary schools in the county of Trøndelag in Norway. We ran descriptive analyses, correlations and hierarchical regression to analyse our data. In the stepwise causal modelling, the independent variables were placed in the same order as the hypotheses were formulated. This enabled us to test each of the independent variables to explain how much variance there was in the dependent variable (intention to leave) beyond those entered in the previous steps. The results show that the students’ grades from elementary school, parental and teacher support and school engagement in upper secondary school are important explanatory factors leading to dropout. Loneliness at secondary school and students’ ability to cope with stressful life events seem to be the two most important predictive factors in relation to the students’ thoughts about leaving.

Academic entitlement: its relationship with academic behaviors and attitudes Abstract The current study examined the relationship of academic entitlement with student attitudes (e.g., locus of control, motivation) and academic behavior. Participants were 272 (96 men, 176 women) undergraduate students enrolled in general psychology and recruited from a psychology research pool. In groups, participants individually completed a lengthy survey, which included an academic entitlement scale, a locus of control scale, an academic motivation scale, and items related to academic behaviors and attitudes. Academic entitlement was correlated with a more external locus of control and lower academic motivation. Significant correlations also emerged between academic entitlement and perceptions of factors that might help and hinder academic performance. For example, regarding factors perceived as helping academic performance, academic entitlement was positively correlated with endorsing luck as a helpful factor, but negatively correlated with endorsing class attendance as a helpful factor. Regarding factors perceived as hindering academic performance, academic entitlement was positively correlated with external factors such as bad luck and perceiving there to be too much work in the course. Results are discussed in terms of the need to consider academic entitlement as an academic risk factor.

The predictive value of school climate and teacher techniques on students’ just world beliefs: a comprehensive Brazilian sample Abstract Substantial research has established the connection between students’ beliefs in a just world (BJW) and their perceptions of and behaviors in the school. While much of that research has acknowledged that the relationship between BJW and school variables must be bi-directional, little empirical evidence exists on how the school climate shapes students’ perceptions of justice. This study draws from a comprehensive sample of Brazilian students from third through twelfth grade (n = 18,514) across 122 public schools in Southern Brazil. Results reveal that school climate variables account for 12.1–19.6% of the variance of students’ BJW, with middle school being a time of strongest influence. Perceptions of rule fairness, student–student relationships, and positive and socio-emotional learning techniques were significant predictors across all grade levels. Additional analyses revealed that teachers’ positive and socio-emotional techniques can act as a moderator between school climate and students’ BJW. The results provide more tangible ways to integrate just world research into the educational context by bridging the gap between school climate research and just world theory. This study provides empirical data for the bidirectionality of BJW and school context and opens the discussion on how the school sets students’ future expectations of justice.

Being stable and getting along with others: perceived ability expectations and employability among Finnish university students Abstract The aim of this study was to examine what sort of ability expectations university students have about the requirements of working life, and how the perception of these expectations relate to students’ perceptions of their own employability. The participants comprised a sample of students (N = 1819) from two Finnish universities, representing diverse fields of study. They were asked to describe themselves according to a set of abilities and to then indicate those abilities that would be particularly important for them in the labour market. It was found that being stable and getting along with others were the most commonly considered generic capabilities for coping in working life. Furthermore, those university students who identified entrepreneurial skills and extroversion as predominant ability requirements were prone to have relatively pessimistic perceptions of their employability possibilities. Accordingly, the results of the study suggest that students’ views of their expected abilities tend to shape their perceptions of their employment prospects, particularly with regard to entrepreneurial skills.

A matter of teaching and relationships: determinants of teaching style, interpersonal resources and teacher burnout Abstract The present study tests a model of the interplay between teaching style determinants, interpersonal resources, and teacher burnout dimensions, controlling for teachers’ experience variables. Two-hundred and ninety-seven teachers in the Portuguese educational system teaching in a rural region participated in the research. Using a Structural Equation Modeling approach, the key finding of this study is that teacher interpersonal self-efficacy and teacher–student closeness partially mediated the connections between teacher epistemological sophistication and student misbehavior and teacher burnout. Specifically, an increment of teacher depersonalization is associated with student misbehavior, when mediated by interpersonal self-efficacy and teacher–student closeness. Moreover, while greater attunement with students (meaning lower conflict) prevents emotional exhaustion caused by student misbehavior, it also has costs in terms of lower professional accomplishment. Thus, in intense interpersonal settings like schools, teacher interpersonal resources, especially teacher–student closeness and attunement, may not have an universal positive return for educators. Implications for future research are recommended, such as the replication of this model across urban and suburban settings. In addition, it seems warranted that teacher pre-service and service training readdress the topic of interpersonal resources as a means to improve teacher well-being, including its merits and limits.

Examining acculturation orientations and perceived cultural distance among immigrant adolescents in Portugal: links to performance in reading, mathematics, and science Abstract Drawing on data from the fifth cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the authors examined the relations of reported acculturation orientations—heritage as well as host culture-orientations—and perceived cultural distance between host and heritage culture with academic performance among 399 first- and second-generation immigrant adolescent students in Portugal. Results of hierarchical regression analyses, after accounting for student demographic characteristics, revealed a positive relationship between host culture-orientations and the first-generation immigrant adolescents’ performance on the PISA reading, mathematics and science assessments, and also the second-generation immigrant adolescents’ performance on reading assessment. Additionally, both the first- and second- generation immigrant adolescents’ heritage culture-orientations were significantly negatively linked to performance on the PISA reading, mathematics, and science assessments. Furthermore, findings revealed that first-generation immigrant adolescents’ perceived cultural distance was significantly negatively associated with their performance on the PISA reading and mathematics assessments. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.