Promoting Postsecondary Education in Low-Income Youth: The Moderating Role of Socio-Behavioral and Academic Skills in the Context of a Major Educational Reform.

Governments around the world are pressed to invest in postsecondary education. However, little research exists to document whether large-scale educational reforms aimed at increasing rates of postsecondary attendance benefit youth's developmental outcomes. This study tested whether an educational reform occurring in Québec, Canada, in the 1960s increased educational levels, and whether it benefitted some youth more than others. In the 1970's, 4109 low-income youth (50% females) aged 7-13 years old were recruited at Time 1 from first, fourth, and seventh grade classes (Mage = 10.6, SD = 2.5). Socio-behavioral characteristics and academic skills at Time 1 were examined as predictors of educational attainment at Time 2, three decades later, on 3883 of the same participants. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the likelihood of youth obtaining a diploma from the newly created, accessible, and affordable colleges ("cégeps"). Low-educated groups (high school dropouts and high school graduates) presented a higher early risk profile than did college graduates. Interactions revealed that social withdrawal protected youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods, helping them graduate from college. Likeability helped academically weaker girls go beyond college and access university, and helped academically competent boys graduate from college. Aggressive behavior decreased the odds of university attendance for academically competent boys. Policies promoting higher education for disadvantaged youth should be supplemented with early interventions integrating academic and socio-behavioral objectives.

Contribuição dos Indicadores de Problemas Emocionais e de Comportamento para o Rendimento Escolar / Impacts of Emotional Problems and Behavior Indicators on Performance at School / Contribución de los Indicadores de Problemas Emocionales y de Comportamiento al Rendimiento Escolar

Resumo Este estudo investigou se há contribuição e em que medida os problemas e os indicadores comportamentais emocionais e de conduta explicam o rendimento escolar dos adolescentes. Setenta estudantes participaram, 70 famílias e 21 profes sores. Os adolescentes responderam ao inventário de comportamentos da juventude (YSR), a família do inventário dos professores da criança e o comportamento dos adolescentes (CBCL) e o inventário de conduta do Adolescente (TRF) e crianças. O desempenho escolar foi avaliado a partir da média final nas disciplinas de português e matemática. Na ava liação dos adolescentes, suas famílias e professores, os problemas de atenção explicam o mau desempenho escolar, bem como a terceirização dos problemas identificados pelos adolescentes e os sintomas de isolamento/depressão indicada pelos professores. É realçada a importância de atender tais indicadores, visto sua influência nos adolescentes.

Abstract This study investigates to what extent emotional and behavioral problems impact on and explain the academic per formance of adolescents. 70 students, 70 families and 21 teachers participated in the study, completing the Youth Self-Report (YSR), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Teacher Report Form (TRF). School performance was as sessed using the final grade in Portuguese and mathematics. The evaluation of adolescents, families and teachers shows that attention problems explain low school performance, in addition to the externalization of problems indicated by the adolescents and the isolation or depression indicated by the teachers. The article highlights the importance of attention to these variables, given their influence on adolescents' learning.

Resumen Este estudio investiga en qué medida los indicadores de problemas emocionales y conductuales contribuyen y explican el rendimiento académico de los adolescentes. En la investigación participaron 70 estudiantes, 70 familias y 21 maestros, que respondieron el Autoinforme para jóvenes (YSR, por sus siglas en inglés), el Inventario de conductas de niños y ado lescentes (CBCL, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Informe del educador (TRF, por sus siglas en inglés). El rendimiento escolar se evaluó a partir de la media final en las disciplinas de portugués y matemáticas. En la evaluación de los adolescentes, sus familias y los maestros se destaca que los problemas de atención explican el bajo rendimiento escolar, además de la externalización de los problemas indicados por los adolescentes y los síntomas de aislamiento o depresión señalados por los profesores. Se resalta la importancia de prestar atención a este tipo de indicadores, dada su influencia sobre el aprendizaje de los adolescentes.

The Contribution of Adolescent Effortful Control to Early Adult Educational Attainment.

Effortful control has been proposed as a set of neurocognitive competencies that is relevant to self-regulation and educational attainment (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). This study tested the hypothesis that a multiagent report of adolescents' effortful control (age 17) would be predictive of academic persistence and educational attainment (age 23-25), after controlling for other established predictors (family factors, problem behavior, grade point average, and substance use). Participants were 997 students recruited in 6th grade from 3 urban public middle schools (53% males; 42.4% European American; 29.2% African American). Consistent with the hypothesis, the unique association of effortful control with future educational attainment was comparable in strength to that of parental education and students' past grade point average, suggesting that effortful control contributes to this outcome above and beyond well-established predictors. Path coefficients were equivalent across gender and ethnicity (European Americans and African Americans). Effortful control appears to be a core feature of the self-regulatory competencies associated with achievement of educational success in early adulthood. These findings suggest that the promotion of self-regulation in general and effortful control in particular may be an important focus not only for resilience to stress and avoidance of problem behavior, but also for growth in academic competence.