School Alienation Among Adolescents in Switzerland and Luxembourg: The Role of Parent and Peer Supportive Attitudes Toward School and Teacher Autonomy Support

Abstract

Prior research has shown that socialization agents such as parents, peers, and teachers can play a significant role in adolescents’ educational outcomes, both through direct support or indirectly via supportive attitudes that foster students’ bonding to school and academic motivation. However, less is known about the effects of parent and peer supportive attitudes and teacher autonomy support on unfavorable educational outcomes such as school alienation. This study investigated the role of socialization agents in the development of school alienation among 544 secondary school students in Switzerland and 535 secondary school students in Luxembourg in grades 7 to 9. Results of structural equation modeling showed that the role of socialization agents varies across the school alienation domains and educational contexts, with peers having the most substantial impact on all three domains of alienation in both countries.

The Role of Teaching Styles in the Development of School Alienation and Behavioral Consequences: A Mixed Methods Study of Luxembourgish Primary Schools

“…School alienation (SAL) is conceptualized—following an approach of Hascher & Hadjar (2018) that is based on previous classical alienation concepts (e.g., Seeman, 1959) and more recent applications to learning environments (e.g., Mann, 2005)—as a set of negative attitudes toward academic and social aspects of schooling. SAL constitutes a complex phenomenon, as it covers three domains which are located at the interfaces between school, family, and peer group (Morinaj et al, 2021). International research from various disciplines such as educational studies, sociology, and psychology universally perceives school alienation as a serious problem (e.g., Brown et al, 2003; Hascher & Hadjar, 2018; Hascher & Hagenauer, 2010), as alienated students are hardly interested in schooling and often show deviant behavior or reduced engagement, leading to low educational success, school dropout, and educational poverty (e.g., Archambault et al, 2009; Avci & Çelikkaleli, 2016; Studsrød & Bru, 2012).…”