Robert W. Roeser

School as a Context of Early Adolescents' Academic and Social-Emotional Development: A Summary of Research Findings

Successful youth development during adolescence is an intergenerational process, one in which youth are responsible for being open to and taking advantage of new experiences, and adults are responsible for providing youth with nourishing, growth-enhancing opportunities. In this article, we examine how adolescents perceive the nature of the opportunities they are provided by teachers and staff in middle school, and how such opportunities are related to changes in their academic and social-emotional functioning over time. Our findings indicate that specific instructional, interpersonal, and organizational dimensions of middle school life, as perceived by adolescents themselves, are associated in important ways with the quality and character of their education- and non-education-related development during the years of early adolescence.

Academic Functioning and Mental Health in Adolescence: Patterns, Progressions, and Routes From Childhood

The current study examines patterns of academic functioning and mental health in 184 middle school children and the relation of such patterns to their prior and subsequent functioning. Data were collected from children during their second, third, fourth, eighth, and ninth grade school years. Cluster analyses were used to delineate patterns of academic functioning and mental health during eighth grade. The authors examined the relation of these patterns to academic functioning and mental health 1 year later the transition to high school, and then examined the long-term developmental roots of the eighth grade patterns using data collected during elementary school years. Results indicated variegated patterns of academic and emotional functioning at eighth grade and stability in these patterns across the high school transition. Some long-term continuity was found among children showing uniformly positive or negative functioning at eighth grade. Studying child functioning across multiple domains and time periods is discussed.

Schooling and Mental Health

Schools hold a central place in the “developmental agenda” set forth for children and adolescents throughout the world (Rogoff, 1990; Sameroff, 1987).1 Children’s experiences in school have the capacity to promote developmental competencies associated with learning and achievement motivation, emotional functioning, and social relationships, and in some instances can potentiate difficulties in these aspects of functioning. In this chapter, we focus on the relation between children’s academic and emotional functioning, and on how school, as a central context of development, can shape both academic and mental health outcomes in children. The chapter is comprised of three main sections. First, we discuss the relevance of schooling to those interested in development, mental health, and psychopathology. Second, we briefly discuss linkages between children’s academic and emotional functioning. Third, we provide a description of the interpersonal, instructional, and organizational processes through which schools can influence the developmental course of children’s achievement-related behaviors, academic motivation, and their mental health.

An Education in Awareness: Self, Motivation, and Self-Regulated Learning in Contemplative Perspective

Consistent with the aims of this special issue, we present a systems perspective on self/identity, predicated on William Jamess classic distinction between I and Me, and use this perspective to explore conceptual relations between self/identity, motivation to learn, and self-regulated learning. We define the I self functionally in terms of the capacity for the conscious shifting and sustaining of awareness. The I is conceived of as that aspect of the self-system that affords the potential for the conscious and willful, rather than the non-conscious and automatic, motivation and regulation of behavior. We introduce contemplative education as a set of pedagogical practices designed to cultivate conscious awareness in an ethical-relational context in which the values of personal growth, learning, moral living, and caring for others are nurtured. We discuss the implications of contemplative education for the cultivation of conscious and willful forms of learning and living among students and educators alike.

South African-ness among Adolescents: The Emergence of a Collective Identity within the Birth to Twenty Cohort Study.

The authors assessed the emergence of a South African identity among Black, Colored (mixed ancestral origin), White (predominantly English speaking), and Indian adolescents participating in a birth cohort study called “Birth to Twenty” in Johannesburg, South Africa. They examined young peoples certainty of their self-categorization as South African; the centrality of their personal, racial, linguistic, and South African identities in their self-definition; and their perceptions of South African life and society today. These results reflect a historical opportunity for full citizenship and national enfranchisement that the end of apartheid heralded for Black and Colored individuals. Black and Colored youth tend to be more certain about their South African-ness, have a more collective identity, and have a more positive perception around South Africa. In contrast, White and Indian youth are less certain about their South African-ness, have a more individualistic identity, and have a less positive perception about South Africa today.

To Cultivate the Positive . . . Introduction to the Special Issue on Schooling and Mental Health Issues

Abstract Understanding how academic and social-emotional assets and problems are interrelated across development in childhood and adolescence, and how school is a normative context of development that can affect outcomes in both domains of functioning are understudied topics in the educational, developmental, and child–clinical psychology research literatures. This is a consequence of relatively little cross-fertilization of theory and research between psychologists interested primarily in clinical versus normative populations, and those interested primarily in school contexts, motivation, and learning versus nonschool contexts and social-emotional development during the school years (ages 5 to 18). Progress is being made, however, and researchers are beginning to explore how theory and research into the roots, course, contextual correlates, and consequences of academic success or failure, and social-emotional well-being or distress during childhood and adolescence share complementary insights and findings (see Roeser & Eccles, 2000 ). Such cross-disciplinary and integrative work may lead to improvements in the effectiveness of school-based intervention, prevention, and health-promotion strategies, and may also lead to new insights into how such programs can be integrated with broader educational reforms that aim to change the everyday practice of teaching and learning in the school. The articles collected together in this special issue of the Journal of School Psychology take several steps toward providing such an integration of and cross-fertilization between education- and mental health-oriented theory, research, and school-based practice.

Mindfulness and Compassion in Human Development: Introduction to the Special Section.

Research on contemplative practices (e.g., mindfulness or compassion training) is growing rapidly in the clinical, health and neuro-sciences, but almost none of this research takes an explicitly developmental life span perspective. At present, we know rather little about the naturalistic development of mindfulness or compassion in children and adolescents, or the processes by which parents can socialize these positive qualities in their offspring. Thus, the goal of this special section is to showcase empirical research articles that redress this absence of a developmental focus in contemplative science by focusing on issues of construct conceptualization and measurement, socialization practices in families, and the role that interventions can play in fostering mindfulness and compassion in children, adolescents, and care-givers alike.

Cultivating Teacher Mindfulness: Effects of a Randomized Controlled Trial on Work, Home, and Sleep Outcomes

The effects of randomization to a workplace mindfulness training (WMT) or a waitlist control condition on teachers’ well-being (moods and satisfaction at work and home), quantity of sleep, quality of sleep, and sleepiness during the day were examined in 2 randomized, waitlist controlled trials (RCTs). The combined sample of the 2 RCTs, conducted in Canada and the United States, included 113 elementary and secondary school teachers (89% female). Measures were collected at baseline, postprogram, and 3-month follow-up; teachers were randomly assigned to condition after baseline assessment. Results showed that teachers randomized to WMT reported less frequent bad moods at work and home, greater satisfaction at work and home, more sleep on weekday nights, better quality sleep, and decreased insomnia symptoms and daytime sleepiness. Training-related group differences in mindfulness and rumination on work at home at postprogram partially mediated the reductions in negative moods at home and increases in sleep quality at follow-up.

Schooling and the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the United States

Schools are a central cultural context of child and adolescent development. Children spend more time in schools than in any other context outside their homes (Eccles & Roeser, 2010, 2011). Thus, success in this setting is critical to both current mental health and future life options (NAS, 2006; NCES, 2006). Yet not everyone in the USA either thrives in or completes formal K-12 schooling. Poor children (a disproportionately high percentage of whom are African-, Mexican-, and Native American) are much less likely to complete high school or enroll in and graduate from college (Aud, KewalRamani, & Frohlich, 2011). This leaves many young people unprepared to participate and prosper fully in the changing US economy (Duncan & Murane, 2011). In addition, many children, particularly but not only those living in poverty, come to school unprepared to deal with the demands of schooling and with unmet health and mental health needs (Adelman & Taylor, 2009; Greenberg et al., 2003). Lack of readiness and untreated problems can contribute to academic failure at school and growing social and behavioral problems across the school years.

The Emergence of Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Educational Settings

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the emergence of school-based, secular, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for educators and students that aim to cultivate mindfulness and its putative benefits for teaching, learning, and well-being. Design/methodology/approach The paper has four sections: (a) a description of indicators of increased interest in mindfulness generally and in education; (b) substantive and functional definitions of mindfulness; (c) rationales for the potential value of mindfulness for teaching, learning, and well-being; and (d) a review of extant research on MBIs for teachers and students in schools. Findings On the basis of this review, it is concluded that school-based MBIs represent a promising emerging approach to enhancing teaching, learning, and well-being in schools; but that more research, with more rigorous study designs and measures, need to be done to establish the scientific validity of the effects of school-based MBIs for teachers and students alike.