Anticipated Transition to Adulthood: The Effect of Educational Track, Gender, and Self-Evaluation on Finnish and Polish Adolescents' Future Orientation

Differences in agency? How adolescents from 18 countries perceive and cope with their futures

“…Previous cross-cultural research primarily focused on conducting bi-national comparisons of adolescent samples, mostly from countries which share common borders (Brouwers, van Helmert, Breugelmans, & van de Vijver, 2004). Many studies used inadequate sampling methods that generated high variations in sample sizes (e.g., Rescorla et al, 2007) or levels of schooling (e.g., Jose et al, 1998;Malmberg & Trempala, 1997). Given the increase in future-and school-related stressors experienced by adolescents in Western countries, an investigation of stress perception and coping with stress in adolescents from different parts of the globe, using careful sampling procedures, is clearly warranted.…”

Global Self-Esteem in Technical/Vocational Versus General Secondary School Tracks: A Matter of Gender?

“…With respect to self-esteem, most of these studies suggest adverse effect of being in a lower track. Lower track students seem to have more negative attitudes toward themselves than students in higher tracks do (Alexander & McDill, 1976;Catsambis, Mulkey, & Crain, 1999;Cheung & Rudowicz, 2003;Ireson & Hallam, 1999;Malmberg & Trempala, 1997;Vanfossen, Jones, & Spade, 1987). According to Oakes (1985), the selfconcept of low track pupils becomes more negative as years go by.…”

“…However, the little research with respect to tracking effects on self-esteem that has taken gender into account is inconclusive. Some researchers did not find a gender difference (Cheung & Rudowicz, 2003;Malmberg & Trempala, 1997), whereas others gathered that girls' self-esteem, but not boys', is affected by curriculum position (Brutsaert, 1990;Harper & Marshall, 1991) or that girls' self-esteem is more affected than that of boys (Catsambis et al, 1999). It is noteworthy that generally these studies were not carried out explicitly and/or exclusively to examine gender differences in the association between track and self-esteem.…”

“…As a result, they are characterized by a variety of research methods and moderating variables. Furthermore, they differ with respect to the kind of tracks or ability groups considered, due to international differences in tracking systems, namely high ability versus low ability schools (Cheung & Rudowicz, 2003), general schools versus vocational schools (Malmberg & Trempala, 1997), curriculum position (Brutsaert, 1990;Harper & Marshall, 1991), and course specific tracking (e.g., English tracking, Catsambis et al, 1999). Each study did consider global selfesteem-measured by all but Catsambis et al (1999) by means of the Rosenberg Self-Concept Scale-yet, Cheung and Rudowicz (2003), who examined ability grouping in Hong Kong, asserted that Chinese culture puts little emphasis on the promotion of selfesteem and regards people with high self-esteem as arrogant.…”

Homonegativity in the Technical and Vocational Track: A Survey of Secondary School Students in Flanders

“…In such systems, low-achieving students may be labeled as academic failures or regard themselves as having limited future opportunities (Malmberg & Trempala, 1997;Van Houtte & Stevens, 2010). This sense of futility imposed by the educational system sometimes leads to feelings of frustration that can cause them to get involved in violence or other forms of misconduct in school (Akiba et al, 2002;Van Houtte & Stevens, 2008).…”