Examining individual‐level academic risk and protective factors for foster youth: School engagement, behaviors, self‐esteem, and social skills

Abstract

Students' school engagement is widely regarded as critical for positive school adjustment and overall academic success. Foster youth persistently face poorer educational outcomes than peers and demonstrate lower levels of school engagement and higher levels of academically threatening behaviors. The goals of the present study were (a) to explore relationships amongst various child‐level correlates of school engagement and problem behaviors—namely, self‐esteem and social skills—and (b) to respectively investigate the protective potential of self‐esteem and social skills in the association between school engagement and behavior problems that threaten educational trajectories. Results indicate significant associations between school engagement and problem behaviors, as well as between self‐esteem, social skills, and school engagement. Further, self‐esteem mediated the association between school engagement and both youth‐ and foster parent‐reported externalizing behavior, and social skills mediated the association between school engagement and both youth‐ and foster parent‐reported externalizing behavior. Implications for future practice, research, and policy are discussed.

Increasing Self-esteem through Traditional Sundanese Games and Sport from Indonesia in Physical Education

“…The main factor in increasing student development is school involvement, school involvement is an action that directs students to active activities in school which results in a positive influence on self-esteem. [42,43]. This opinion can be seen from two viewpoints of social calculation [44] and a symbolic interactionist point of view [4].…”

School engagement, school climate and youth externalizing behaviors: direct and indirect effects of parenting practices

“…Students’ engagement in school and a positive school climate are two potential protective factors for youth externalizing behaviors. In contrast, according to Hirschi ( 1969 ), individuals with lower school engagement may have more difficulties to internalize conventional norms, which can lead to problematic behaviors in school settings that are particularly dangerous for academic development, as they result in disciplinary actions that ultimately drive children and youth away from the classroom (Mihalec-Adkins & Cooley, 2020 ).…”

School engagement and self‐esteem among Turkish secondary school students: A moderated‐mediation model for academic achievement and gender

“…While high self-esteem is the favorable global evaluation of one's competence in subjectively important domains, low self-esteem refers to an outcome of subjective weaknesses and negative assessments (Baumeister et al, 2003). Theories and studies support the assumption that positive selfesteem promotes the development of psychological resilience and positive behavioral outcomes, and serves as a protective function by preventing negative experiences (Dumont & Provost, 1999;Mihalec-Adkins & Cooley, 2020). Because individuals with high self-esteem are confident in their ability to overcome troubles and to control their environment, they are less affected by stressors (Dumont & Provost, 1999;Tian et al, 2018).…”