Aprile D. Benner

The Racial/Ethnic Composition of Elementary Schools and Young Children's Academic and Socioemotional Functioning

This study attempted to untangle how two dimensions of school racial/ethnic composition—racial/ethnic diversity of the student body and racial/ethnic matching between children and their peers—were related to socioemotional and academic development after the transition into elementary school. Analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort revealed that school racial/ethnic composition was more strongly associated with children’s academic, as opposed to socioemotional, outcomes. Students had higher achievement test scores in more diverse schools, especially when they also had more same-race/ethnicity peers in these diverse schools. These patterns were particularly strong for White students. Having more school peers of the same race/ethnicity, regardless of the overall level of diversity in the school, was associated with positive socioemotional development.

Family Economic Stress and Academic Well-Being Among Chinese-American Youth: The Influence of Adolescents’ Perceptions of Economic Strain

This study examined the pathways by which family economic stress influenced youths educational outcomes in a sample of 444 Chinese American adolescents (M ages = 13.0, 17.1 years at waves 1 and 2, respectively). Using latent variable structural equation modeling, results across two waves of data, spanning early to late adolescence, demonstrated that the influence of parent report of economic stress on youth academic achievement (i.e., GPA), school engagement, and positive attitudes about education was mediated through youths perceptions of family economic strain and self-reports of depressive symptoms. These relationships were observed to remain significant after accounting for selection bias using individual fixed-effects models. Finally, youths perceptions of family economic strain were found to more strongly predict depressive symptoms during later, as compared to earlier, adolescence; all other modeled relationships were equivalent across the two time periods. Implications for expanding theoretical tenets of the Family Economic Stress Model are discussed.

A longitudinal study of the simultaneous influence of mothers' and teachers' educational expectations on low-income youth's academic achievement.

This short-term longitudinal study investigated the simultaneous influences of adults’ (mothers and teachers) educational expectations and youth’s achievement (standardized test scores and teachers’ ratings of academic performance) across a 3-year time span on youth’s performance in school (GPA). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 426 low-income urban youth, ages 6 through 16 at T1. Results from cross-lagged and autoregressive path analyses indicated stability in adults’ expectations and youth’s standardized test scores; cross-lagged influences of teachers’, but not mothers’, expectations across time; and effects of youth’s achievement outcomes on adults’ expectations at T2, but not vice versa. Overall, the pattern of findings demonstrate that adults’ educational expectations are dynamic and responsive to how youth are faring in school and to changes in academic performance across time.

Mother-Adolescent Language Proficiency and Adolescent Academic and Emotional Adjustment Among Chinese American Families

This study examined the role of adolescents’ and mothers’ self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth’s academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents’ heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth.

Drinking, Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Progress in Secondary School

Secondary schools are sites of academic instruction but also contexts of socioemotional development, and the intertwining of these two functions has consequences for adolescents’ future health and education. Drawing on nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 8,271), this study explored the bidirectional associations among indicators of adolescents’ alcohol use and their feelings of social integration at school. Socioemotional problems did not predict increased drinking over time, but drinking predicted declining socioemotional functioning, with negative implications for adolescents’ academic grades by the end of high school. These associations, however, were conditioned by aspects of school context, with drinkers feeling more marginalized in schools characterized by dense networks with low rates of drinking.

The Selection of Children from Low-Income Families into Preschool.

Because children from low-income families benefit from preschool but are less likely than other children to enroll, identifying factors that promote their enrollment can support research and policy aiming to reduce socioeconomic disparities in education. In this study, we tested an accommodations model with data on 6,250 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. In general, parental necessity (e.g., maternal employment) and human capital considerations (e.g., maternal education) most consistently predicted preschool enrollment among children from low-income families. Supply side factors (e.g., local child care options) and more necessity and human capital factors (e.g., having fewer children, desiring preparation for school) selected such children into preschool over parental care or other care arrangements, and several necessity factors (e.g., being less concerned about costs) selected them into non-Head Start preschools over Head Start programs. Systemic connections and child elicitation did not consistently predict preschool enrollment in this population.

Exit Examinations, Peer Academic Climate, and Adolescents' Developmental Outcomes.

Implications of high school exit examination performance were examined with a sample of 672 racial/ethnic minority students. Exit examination failure in the 10th grade was negatively linked to subsequent grade point average, school engagement, and school belonging one year later, controlling for outcomes prior to taking the examination. Academically incongruent students-those who failed the exit examination but were in schools where their same-race/ethnicity peers were performing well academically-seemed to be at particular risk for struggling grades and poorer socioemotional well-being (e.g., experiencing greater depressive symptoms and loneliness). Findings contribute to the limited research base on exit examinations and highlight the links between exit examination performance and developmental outcomes beyond the oft-studied academic domain.

Understanding Students’ Transition to High School: Demographic Variation and the Role of Supportive Relationships

The transition to high school is disruptive for many adolescents, yet little is known about the supportive relational processes that might attenuate the challenges students face as they move from middle to high school, particularly for students from more diverse backgrounds. Identifying potential buffers that protect youth across this critical educational transition is important for informing more effective support services for youth. In this study, we investigated how personal characteristics (gender, nativity, parent education level) and changes in support from family, friends, and school influenced changes in socioemotional adjustment and academic outcomes across the transition from middle to high school. The data were drawn from 252 students (50% females, 85% Latina/o). The results revealed declines in students’ grades and increases in depressive symptoms and feelings of loneliness across the high school transition, with key variation by student nativity and gender. Additionally, stable/increasing friend support and school belonging were both linked to less socioemotional disruptions as students moved from middle to high school. Increasing/stable school belonging was also linked to increases in school engagement across the high school transition. These findings suggest that when high school transitions disrupt supportive relationships with important others in adolescents’ lives, adolescents’ socioemotional well-being and, to a lesser extent, their academic engagement are also compromised. Thus, in designing transition support activities, particularly for schools serving more low-income and race/ethnic minority youth, such efforts should strive to acclimate new high school students by providing inclusive, caring environments and positive connections with educators and peers.

Academic achievement as a moderator of genetic influences on alcohol use in adolescence

Prior research suggests a link between academic performance and alcohol use during adolescence, but the degree to which this association reflects actual protective effects continues to be debated. We investigated the role of genetic factors in the association between academic achievement and adolescent alcohol use and whether achievement might constrain the translation of genetic influences on drinking into actual behavior (a Gene × Environment interaction). Analysis of twin data from Add Health (n = 399 monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs) revealed not only common genetic factors underlying the association between achievement and alcohol consumption but also evidence for a gene-environment interaction. Specifically, the protective effect of achievement operated by moderating heritability of alcohol use, which was particularly salient for adolescents at high genetic risk for alcohol use.

Mothers’ Early Depressive Symptoms and Preschoolers’ Behavioral Problems: The Moderating Role of Genetic Influences

As a stressful environment in families, mothers’ depressive symptoms might increase children’s risks of developing behavioral problems by exacerbating genetic influences. Using data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data of approximately 750 pairs of twins, we examined whether genetic influences on preschoolers’ behavioral problems depended upon mothers’ depressive symptoms. Results indicated that the genetic etiology for both internalizing and externalizing behaviors varied with maternal depressive symptoms at 9-months child age. Genetic effects on externalizing behaviors increased as mothers’ depressive symptoms increased; however, genetics effects on internalizing behaviors increased when depressive symptoms either increased or decreased from the median level. These different patterns of interactive effects suggest potentially different mechanisms for the etiology of children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors.