Predicting Day-to-Day Changes in Students’ School-Related Affect From Daily Academic Experiences and Social Interactions

Abstract

This study examined the role that everyday academic successes and failures-and the interactions with family members and peers that follow these events-play in predicting day-to-day changes in children's emotional responses to school. Middle school students (N = 101; mean age = 11.62 years) completed daily assessments of their academic experiences, performance disclosures, perceptions of emotional support, and school-related affect. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that students' daily academic experiences and social interactions varied by both sex and interaction partner, and that students' daily academic experiences and social interactions were predictive of day-to-day changes in both positive and anxious affect. The implications of these findings for students' interpersonal relationships and school adjustment are discussed.

Academic competence perceptions moderate the effects of peer support following academic success disclosures

“…For example, both groups tend to overestimate their abilities, seek out positive evaluative feedback, and make self‐serving attributions (e. g., by taking personal credit for their successes, but blaming external forces for their failures) (Mezulis, Abramson, Hyde, & Hankin, ; Stipek & Mac Iver, ; Trzesniewski, Kinal, & Donnellan, ). Evidence that both children and adults frequently share news of positive events with others and that both groups generally benefit from active‐constructive responses to these positive event disclosures is also consistent with the perspective that self‐enhancement motives are strong, if not universal (Altermatt, ; Gable & Reis, ).…”

“…Much less attention has been paid to peer academic support in the context of academic successes. This lack of attention is surprising given evidence that academic successes are a more common part of children's everyday school experiences than academic challenges (Altermatt, ; Lehman & Repetti, ; Pomerantz & Eaton, ) and that peer support in the context of academic successes may rival or surpass peer support in the context of academic challenges in predicting positive school adjustment (Altermatt, ).…”

“…For example, among adults, active‐constructive responses to positive event disclosures have been found to predict greater positive affect, life satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, ; Reis et al, ). Likewise, among middle school students, active‐constructive responses to academic success disclosures have been found to predict increases in positive school‐related affect, both over the course of a semester and from one day to the next (Altermatt, ).…”

Academic Support From Peers as a Predictor of Academic Self-Efficacy Among College Students

“…In qualitative studies involving high school and college students, students spontaneously report that academic support from peers often comes in the form of being recognized, validated, and encouraged when they are doing well academically (Horvat & Lewis, 2003;Thompson & Mazer, 2009). Likewise, in quantitative studies of both children and adults, there is evidence that the perceived responses of others following positive events, including everyday academic successes (e.g., a good test grade), can play a more important role in predicting well-being than the perceived responses of others following negative events, including everyday academic challenges (Altermatt, 2015;Gable et al, 2006). In explaining these findings, Gable and Haidt (2005) note that social support following negative events can engender both positive and negative emotions-for example, both gratitude and a sense of hopelessness.…”

Grade-Level Declines in Perceived Academic Support From Peers: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

“…The current study provides preliminary evidence for substantial grade-level declines in perceived academic support from peers across the six grades that bridge the transition to middle school. Although most prior research on perceived support has focused on the ways in which social interactions following negative events (e.g., a bad grade) might contribute to perceptions of support and emotional well-being, the current findings add to a growing literature indicating that social interactions following positive events (e.g., a good grade) may also play an important role (Altermatt, 2015;Horvat & Lewis, 2003). Specifically, grade-level declines in perceived academic support from peers were partially mediated by grade-level declines both in children's perceptions that sharing news of an academic success is normative and in children's perceptions that such disclosures will be met with enthusiastic responses.…”