Carrie J. Furrer

Sense of relatedness as a factor in children's academic engagement and performance.

Children’s sense of relatedness is vital to their academic motivation from 3rd to 6th grade. Children’s (n 641) reports of relatedness predicted changes in classroom engagement over the school year and contributed over and above the effects of perceived control. Regression and cumulative risk analyses revealed that relatedness to parents, teachers, and peers each uniquely contributed to students’ engagement, especially emotional engagement. Girls reported higher relatedness than boys, but relatedness to teachers was a more salient predictor of engagement for boys. Feelings of relatedness to teachers dropped from 5th to 6th grade, but the effects of relatedness on engagement were stronger for 6th graders. Discussion examines theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of relatedness as a key predictor of children’s academic motivation and performance. When explaining motivational dynamics in school, psychologists frequently point to differences in children’s underlying beliefs and capacities. Decades of research show that children’s self-perceptions, such as self-efficacy, goal orientations, or autonomy, are robust predictors of motivation and performance in school, both concurrently and over many years (for reviews, see Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Stipek, 2002). At the same time, however, researchers note the centrality of social factors in children’s motivation (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Eccles et al., 1998; Goldstein, 1999; Juvonen & Wentzel, 1996; Resnick et al., 1997; Weiner, 1990). Research from multiple traditions demonstrates the impact on children’s motivation and learning of relationships with parents (Steinberg, Darling, & Fletcher, 1995), teachers (Stipek, 2002), and peers (Hymel, Comfort, Schonert-Reichl, & McDougall, 1996). Recently, these two general lines of thinking, one about selfperceptions and one about interpersonal relationships, have converged in the study of the motivational consequences of children’s sense of self in relationships. Studied under a variety of labels, such as social cognitive views of motivation (Weiner, 1990), internal working models (Bretherton, 1985), relationship representations (Ryan, Stiller, & Lynch, 1994), classroom climate (Anderson, 1982), and perceived social support (Wentzel, 1999), the core notion is that a history of interactions with specific social partners leads children to construct generalized expectations about the nature of the self in relationships. Also referred to as a sense of relatedness (Connell, 1990), connectedness (Weiner, 1990), or belonging (Goodenow, 1993), these organized self-system processes include views about the self as lovable (or unworthy of love) and about the social world as trustworthy (or hostile). Children rely on these beliefs when predicting, interpreting, and responding to social exchanges, and these exchanges can in turn be used to confirm or revise children’s beliefs. A sense of relatedness may function as a motivational resource when children are faced with challenge or difficulties. In times of stress, children who experience trusted others as “backing them up” respond with more vigor, flexibility, and constructive actions. A sense of relatedness is the focus of the present study. Building on the growing body of work on the role of relationship representations, we attempted to explore the effects of a sense of relatedness, both generally and toward specific social partners, on children’s academic motivation and performance during middle childhood.

A Motivational Perspective on Engagement and Disaffection: Conceptualization and Assessment of Children's Behavioral and Emotional Participation in Academic Activities in the Classroom

This article presents a motivational conceptualization of engagement and disaffection: First, it emphasizes childrens constructive, focused, enthusiastic participation in the activities of classroom learning; second, it distinguishes engagement from disaffection, as well as behavioral features from emotional features. Psychometric properties of scores from teacher and student reports of behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, behavioral disaffection, and emotional disaffection were examined using data from 1,018 third through sixth graders. Structural analyses of the four indicators confirm that a multidimensional structure fits the data better than do bipolar or unidimensional models. Validity of scores is supported by findings that teacher reports are correlated with student reports, with in vivo observations in the classroom, and with markers of self-system and social contextual processes. As such, these measures capture important features of engagement and disaffection in the classroom, and any comprehensive assessment should include markers of each. Additional dimensions are identified, pointing the way to future research.

How Effective Are Family Treatment Drug Courts? Outcomes From a Four-Site National Study

Family treatment drug courts (FTDCs) are a rapidly expanding program model designed to improve treatment and child welfare outcomes for families involved in child welfare who have substance abuse problems. The present study compares outcomes for 250 FTDC participants to those of similar parents who did not receive FTDC services in four sites. Results show that FTDC parents, compared to comparison parents, entered substance abuse treatment more quickly, stayed in treatment longer, and completed more treatment episodes. Furthermore, children of FTDC parents entered permanent placements more quickly and were more likely to be reunified with their parents, compared to children of non-FTDC participants. Finally, the FTDC program appears to have a “value added” in facilitating positive child welfare outcomes above and beyond the influence of positive treatment experiences.

Is the Adoption and Safe Families Act Influencing Child Welfare Outcomes for Families With Substance Abuse Issues

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was designed to promote more timely permanent placements for children in the child welfare system. To date, however, available data have said little about whether ASFA is meeting its intended goals. This study looks at the impact of ASFA on parents struggling with substance abuse issues. The authors compared child welfare outcomes, pre- and post-ASFA, for children of more than 1,900 substance-abusing women with some treatment involvement. After the implementation of ASFA, children in this study spent less time in foster care, were placed in permanent settings more quickly, and were more likely to be adopted than remain in long-term foster care. The proportion of children who were reunified with their parent or parents stayed the same. These outcomes were apparent even controlling for case and family characteristics. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of ASFA on service delivery systems.

The effect of Early Head Start on child welfare system involvement: A first look at longitudinal child maltreatment outcomes☆

The high societal and personal costs of child maltreatment make identification of effective early prevention programs a high research priority. Early Head Start (EHS), a dual generational program serving low-income families with children prenatally through age three years, is one of the largest federally funded programs for infants and toddlers in the United States. A national randomized trial found EHS to be effective in improving parent and child outcomes, but its effectiveness in reducing child maltreatment was not assessed. The current study used administrative data from state child welfare agencies to examine the impact of EHS on documented abuse and neglect among children from seven of the original seventeen programs in the national EHS randomized controlled trial. Results indicated that children in EHS had significantly fewer child welfare encounters between the ages of five and nine years than did children in the control group, and that EHS slowed the rate of subsequent encounters. Additionally, compared to children in the control group, children in EHS were less likely to have a substantiated report of physical or sexual abuse, but more likely to have a substantiated report of neglect. These findings suggest that EHS may be effective in reducing child maltreatment among low-income children, in particular, physical and sexual abuse.

The power of protection: a population-based comparison of native and non-native youth suicide attempters

This study provides actionable information about intervening with American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth to prevent suicide. Statewide school survey data were used to model the impact of risk and protective factors on self-reported suicide attempts (both AI/AN and non-AI/AN). The cumulative risk and protective model worked similarly for both groups. AI/AN youth had a higher threshold of risk before making a suicide attempt. Protective factors buffered the impact of risk, particularly for the higher risk youth.

Do Dads Matter? Child Welfare Outcomes for Father-Identified Families

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Fatherhood Initiative to facilitate increased fatherhood engagement. To understand how fatherhood identification in child welfare care planning influences outcomes, a secondary data analysis study was conducted to answer the following questions: Are cases that identify fathers associated with decreased time in foster care, shorter time to permanent placement, more reunifications, and increased use of kinship permanency? The children in cases that identified fathers spent more time with a parent during their child welfare case and therefore less time in foster care. These cases more often resulted in reunification with a parent.

Getting Them There, Keeping Them There: Benefits of an Extended School Day Program for High School Students

Over a decade of research has demonstrated the positive effects of extended school day programs on various elementary and middle school student outcomes, both in the short and long term. The efficacy of extended school day programs in promoting academic outcomes among high school students is less well understood. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining school attendance, credit attainment, and standardized reading and math scores in a group of students at risk of academic failure who participated in extended school day programming. The study compared their outcomes to those of a group of demographically similar students who did not participate in the program. The extended school day program is provided within a full-service Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Community School (CS) in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Results suggest an advantage for SUN students in terms of better school attendance and earning credits toward graduation, but not in terms of standardized test scores. Implications for future research and extended school day policy are discussed.