Adolescents' motivation to use social network sites from a psychological needs perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents' social network sites (SNS) use is prominent during the developmental period. Various adolescents' motivations for using  SNS have been reported. However, there is a lack of psychological perspectives in understanding the reasons for adolescents to use SNS. This study explored adolescents' motivation to use SNS, and a comprehensive psychological framework was used to dismantle adolescents' reasons and purposes for using SNS. Adolescents' ways of using SNS were explored to contextualize teens' SNS use. METHODS: Semistructured interviews with 18 Malaysian adolescents (Mage = 15; 50% female; 10 Malay, 5 Chinese, 1 Indian, 1 Other Bumiputera) were conducted. The qualitative data were collected in 2021 in Malaysia through online video calls. Reflexive thematic analysis was the analytic approach. RESULTS: Six motivations for using SNS were identified: social interaction, content subscription and exploration, emotional support, participation, distraction, and self-expression. Each of the motivations was explicitly linked with different psychological needs. Adolescents were found to use SNS differently in three aspects: deliberate use (i.e., on purpose of use and time spent on SNS), content-selective, and audience-selective. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that psychological needs are the psychological reasons for adolescents' motivations for using SNS. Adolescence developmental tasks like strong peer identification and identity explorations are parts of the basic and compound psychological needs. Teens are pursuing a sense of self-coherence by using SNS. Adolescents demonstrated to use SNS differently at being deliberate and selective, which is speculated to be a result of the conflict between reflexive and reflective thought processes during SNS use.

Examining Social Status Profiles with Gender, School Attended, SES, Academic Achievement and Wellbeing in Urban China.

Previous research has produced inconsistent findings about the relationships between aggressive and prosocial behavior with likeability and popularity. This study utilized latent profile analysis to identify naturally occurring social status profiles with these indicators and to explore their associations with gender, school attended, subjective social status, academic achievement, and wellbeing. The study recruited 818 (aged 12-15 years, 46% girls) Chinese adolescents and revealed four unique social status profiles: high aggressive-low likeability, low social status, average, and high prosocial-high social status groups. A bi-strategic profile did not emerge. The low social status and high aggressive groups exhibited the lowest academic achievement and wellbeing suggesting that more attention should be devoted to these students both in school and in future research.

Which Boys and Which Girls Are Falling Behind? Linking Adolescents' Gender Role Profiles to Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement.

Research on gender gaps in school tends to focus on average gender differences in academic outcomes, such as motivation, engagement, and achievement. The current study moved beyond a binary perspective to unpack the variations within gender. It identified distinct groups of adolescents based on their patterns of conformity to different gender norms and compared group differences in motivation, engagement, and achievement. Data were collected from 597 English students (aged 14-16 years, 49% girls) on their conformity to traditional masculine and feminine norms, growth mindset, perseverance, self-handicapping, and their English and mathematics performance at the end of secondary school. Latent profile analysis identified seven groups of adolescents (resister boys, cool guys, tough guys, relational girls, modern girls, tomboys, wild girls) and revealed the prevalence of each profile. Within-gender variations show that two thirds of the boys were motivated, engaged, and performed well in school. In contrast, half of the girls showed maladaptive patterns of motivation, engagement, and achievement, and could be considered academically at risk. By shifting the focus from "boys versus girls" to "which boys and which girls", this study reveals the invisibility of well-performing boys and underachieving girls in educational gender gap research.

The Role of Teacher Regulatory Talk in Students' Self-Regulation Development Across Cultures.

This study is the first to explore the contribution of different types of teacher regulatory talk-directive, guiding, and autonomy supportive talk-in children's development of self-regulation across cultures. Teacher-to-student talk was analyzed under naturalistic conditions in eight Year 4 classrooms, all situated in different primary schools in England (student N = 25) and Chile (N = 24). Self-regulation was studied by observing students' effective metacognitive monitoring (awareness of errors) and effective metacognitive control (effective control of problems) in a series of 11-13 cube assembly tasks. Mann-Whitney U tests showed that English participants demonstrated higher levels of effective metacognitive monitoring and control, and participating teachers a similar level of teacher regulatory talk across cultures. The function that regulatory talk had in predicting students' self-regulation, however, tended to vary according to culture. OLS multiple regressions revealed that while guiding talk had the same positive effect across cultures, directive talk had a negative effect in England but null effect in Chile, and autonomy supportive talk had a positive effect in Chile but negative in England. These results indicate that it would be valuable to explore further the culturally adaptive functionality of teacher talk for students' self-regulation development.

Person-centred study on higher-order interactions between students' motivational beliefs and metacognitive self-regulation: Links with school language achievement.

Variable-centred studies assume that the links between motivation and metacognition with academic achievement are uniform across all students. However, this assumption may not hold and multiple interactions between motivational beliefs and metacognitive self-regulation may occur. To this end, the present study sought to explore these higher-order interactions and their links with school language achievement in a low-performance context. A large sample (N = 1046, 53.14% girls) of Greek secondary school students (M = 13.97, SD = .80) was drawn. Latent profile analyses were deployed to mimic higher-order interactions. Unexpectedly, the results indicated only three distinct well-defined profiles of students' motivated metacognitive self-regulation, namely exceptional motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (23.3%), adequate motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (48.2%), and minimal motivation and metacognitive self-regulation (28.5%). Incompatible profiles of motivation and metacognitive self-regulation did not emerge, contrary to previous findings suggesting negative higher-order interactions. The BCH method revealed large mean differences in school language achievement between the profiles, adjusting for covariates. Latent multinomial logistic regression indicated that gender and age predicted greater odds of membership to the minimal motivation and metacognitive self-regulation profile. Socio-economic status and spoken language at home predicted less chances of membership to the minimal profile only. Educational interventions are needed to target both motivational beliefs and metacognition to prevent underachievement.

The effectiveness of taught, self-help mindfulness-based interventions on Chinese adolescents' well-being, mental health, prosocial and difficult behavior, and coping strategy.

Despite China's enduring historical connection with mindfulness and the growing recognition of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in Western education, mindfulness remains relatively underexplored in the Chinese education system. This study addresses the scarcity of resources and certified instructors in China by assessing the effectiveness of MBIs in both taught and self-help forms in improving well-being and prosocial behavior and regulating negative emotions and behaviors among Chinese adolescents. The analysis included 362 Chinese students (mean age = 13.03, SD = 0.50, 47.5% girls) from 12 classes, assigned to the taught MBI group (N = 129, post), self-help MBI group (N = 116, post), or control group (N = 117, post). Paired-sample t-tests and multi-level modeling were used, accounting for data nesting and incorporating gender, whether students live in school, and age as covariates. Results revealed a significantly greater improvement in well-being in the taught group compared with the control, with both MBI groups demonstrating increased prosocial behavior. While the taught group showed a significant decrease in loneliness, it was accompanied by an increase in internalizing problems. Coping strategies varied across the groups, with no significant changes in depression, anxiety, and stress levels. These findings imply the potential value of integrating MBIs into the Chinese educational system, especially given the self-help approach's favorable outcomes.

Development of subjective well-being and its relationship with self-esteem in early adolescence.

Despite evidence indicating that self-esteem (SE) may be considered a precondition to subjective well-being (SWB), there are inconclusive findings regarding its developmental links with SWB. Considering the declines in SWB, the purpose of this study is to examine the developmental changes in SWB and its relationship with SE in early adolescence. The data of 11,231 adolescents aged 11 and 14 years old (50% females) from the Millennium Cohort Study were utilized. Latent mean comparison indicated that SWB declined substantially between 11 and 14 years old in the United Kingdom. Cross-lagged modelling showed that SWB was developmentally unstable and that SE predicted later changes in SWB, whereas SWB did not predict changes in SE. SWB declines in the United Kingdom are mostly linked to less satisfaction with secondary school contexts and peer relationships. In short, SE is an important factor that can contribute to adolescents' SWB. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.

Unraveling the complexity of the associations between students' science achievement, motivation, and teachers' feedback.

In recent decades, national science achievement in Greece is following a declining trend. A commonly held assumption is that achievement declines may occur either due to low quality teaching practices or due to students' low motivation. While motivational beliefs have been linked with achievement, there is not enough evidence connecting these motivational constructs with teachers' feedback, which can play an important role in nurturing both students' motivation and achievement. Given that less is known about how these variables collectively function in predicting students' science achievement, the present study draws upon the Greek (N = 5,532 students, N = 211 schools) PISA 2015 dataset to address this issue. A serial multiple mediation multilevel structural equation model was deployed. The results illustrated that the association between feedback and science achievement was partially mediated by the complex network of associations between students' motivational beliefs. Intrinsic motivation was the strongest predictor of achievement, while feedback positively predicted students' motivational beliefs. Unexpectedly, feedback was a negative predictor of achievement both at the individual and school level. The results suggest that interventions are needed to target specifically teachers' feedback practices and intrinsic motivation.

Using Ryff's scales of psychological well-being in adolescents in mainland China.

BACKGROUND: Psychological well-being in adolescence has always been a focus of public attention and academic research. Ryff's six-factor model of psychological well-being potentially provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for investigating positive functioning of adolescents. However, previous studies reported inconsistent findings of the reliability and validity of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB). The present study aimed to explore whether Ryff's six-factor model of psychological well-being could be applied in Chinese adolescents. METHOD: The Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB) were adapted for assessing the psychological well-being of adolescents in mainland China. 772 adolescents (365 boys to 401 girls, 6 missing gender data, mean age = 13.65) completed the adapted 33-item SPWB. The data was used to examine the reliability and construct validity of the adapted SPWB. RESULT: Results showed that five of the six sub-scales had acceptable internal consistency of items, except the sub-scale of autonomy. The factorial structure of the SPWB was not as clear-cut as the theoretical framework suggested. Among the models under examination, the six-factor model had better model fit than the hierarchical model and the one-factor model. However, the goodness-of-fit of the six-factor model was hardly acceptable. High factor correlations were identified between the sub-scales of environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the present study echoed a number of previous studies which reported inadequate reliability and validity of Ryff's scales. Given the evidence, it was suggested that future adolescent studies should seek to develop more age-specific and context-appropriate items for a better operationalisation of Ryff's theoretical model of psychological well-being.