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The role of perceived parental socialization practices in school adjustment among Norwegian upper secondary school students

BACKGROUND Lack of adjustment or school failure is a concern to educators, educational and school psychologists as well as parents, but few studies have focused on school adjustment during late adolescence. Moreover, studies have yet to explore associations between parenting and school adjustment among upper secondary school students. AIM The primary objective of this study is to explore the relative and unique influence of parental support, behavioural control and psychological control (overprotection and autonomy granting) in school adjustment among upper secondary school students. SAMPLE The sample consisted of 564 students (15-18 years of age) in vocational and general educational courses from one upper secondary school in western Norway. METHOD The study was conducted as a survey. All data were based on adolescent reports, except for absence data, which were provided by the school. RESULTS The results showed that perceived parental practices accounted for moderate, but statistically significant amounts of variance in different aspects of school adjustment. CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate that perceived parental socialization practices are only moderately associated with school adjustment among upper secondary school students. This probably reflects the fact that the influence of specific parenting practices declines as children and young adolescents mature into late adolescent students.

Upper Secondary School Students' Perceptions of Teacher Socialization Practices and Reports of School Adjustment.

Lack of adjustment or school failure is of concern to educators, child welfare workers, educational, and school psychologists as well as parents, but there are few studies on this aspect of education, especially among late adolescents. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on teachers as socialization agents as an independent variable in adolescents’ school adjustment. The present study was conducted to explore how upper secondary school students’ perceptions of teacher socialization practices were related to motivation for continued education, school alienation, intention to quit school, truancy, and class absence. The sample consisted of Norwegian adolescents aged 15- to 18-years-old (n = 564) in vocational and general educational courses from one upper secondary school. Perceptions of teacher socialization practices accounted for unique variances in school adjustment. Of the teacher socialization variables, academic support best explained variances in school adjustment. The findings suggest that the associations between teachers as socializing agents and motivation for continued education were relatively strong, but the other associations were relatively modest. The limitations and implications of this study are discussed.

The Child as Co-researcher—Moral and Epistemological Issues in Childhood Research

This article discusses whether a child can and should be engaged as a co-researcher on moral and epistemological grounds. Selected research literature has been used to illustrate various approaches to the issue of childrens participating as co-researchers in social research. By exploring the predicament of childhood and the meaning of the concept ‘research’, we attempt to clarify the necessary conditions for a person to qualify as a researcher and for an activity to qualify as research. We then look at the extent to which the concept of ‘child’ fits within these frames.