European Journal of Education and Psychology最新文献

Children enter the school system with different educational experiences, leaving also with different levels of learning and school results. In this study, we intend to understand the impact of family and school on children's cognitive performance and academic achievement during elementary education. The sample consists of 406 Portuguese children, from preschool and the 1st cycle of Basic Education, aged from 4 to 10 years old. Through full structural equation model, it was observed that the latent variable family (parents’ schooling and socioeconomic level) and the latent variable school (community and type of school) have a significant impact on academic achievement. However, only family presents a significant impact on cognitive performance. These data suggest that the impact of school on intelligence quotient is not expressive in early academic years, where family present higher explanation of the variance.

University dropout has serious consequences not only for the student who gives up, but also for the host society itself. This has led to an increase in studies aimed at analysing and preventing dropout, implemented under different methodologies that are reported in this article.

In addition to this trend, the authors – as members of the European Project ALFA GUIA – have developed a study using a holistic ex-post facto approach targeted at identifying those variables that play a fundamental role in university studentś persistence. The sample used for the statistical analyses excluded students who had left one degree course to enrol on another (since there were no significant differences compared to the group that continued), and the cases with missing values. This resulted in a final sample of 677 subjects (198 who had dropped out and 479 who had persisted). A sample of 1300 university students was interviewed; the information was collected using a questionnaire collaboratively designed by the Project partners, and – in this case – by means of computer assisted interview. A descriptive and correlational analysis was carried out, as a first approximation to data, helping to identify the main relationships between variables. Based on these results, a binary logistic regression analysis was performed. The results confirmed that vocation is the variable that most influences persistence on the studies started. Therefore, this variable (vocation) can act as a protective factor against university dropout, once the remaining variables are controlled.

The aim of this study was to analyse the predictive power of school refusal on high levels of anxiety about school punishment (ASP). In order to do this, a study was conducted on a sample of 1003 school children from 8 to 12 years of age Primary Education. The measurement tools used were the School Anxiety Inventory for Primary Education (SIPE) and the School Refusal Assessment Scale for Children-Revised (SRAS-R-C). The results of the logistic regression analysis showed that school refusal to avoid stimuli that cause negative emotions acted as a statistically significant predictor of ASP in the total sample, as regards gender samples (boys and girls) and in the academic courses samples (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th years of Primary Education). On the other hand, school refusal to avoid social aversion or evaluation situations and school refusal to seek significant others’ attention influenced positively on high levels of ASP in boys sample and in 4th grade of Primary Education, respectively. These results show the importance of assessing the school refusal behaviour because of the influence that it could exert on the appearance of high levels of anxiety about school punishment.

A study was designed with the aim of identifying different profiles of emotional regulation in a sample of university students, and analysing the differences among the identified profiles in relation to stressors perception and psychophysiological stress responses.

The participants were 504 Spanish physiotherapy students (74% women), with a mean age of 21.06 ± 3.74 years old, which answered the Difficulty Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Academic Stress Questionnaire (stressors scale [ECEA] and response scale [RCEA]).

Based on Cluster analysis, three emotional regulation profiles were identified: students with high emotional regulation profile, students with low emotional regulation profile and students with low emotional regulation but high scores in emotional attention profile.

The results indicated statistically significant differences between the emotional regulation profiles in stress appraisals and psychophysiological responses. Succinctly, students with high emotional regulation profile perceived academic environment as less threatening and showed lesser scores in stress responses. Students with low emotional regulation profile and low emotional regulation but high emotional attention profile showed similar scores, with the exception of sleep disorders. Briefly, physiotherapy students who had higher scores on emotional control and acceptance, perceived the academic setting in a more adaptive way and reported fewer stress responses.

Few studies have been performed on strategies used for coping with daily stress and its associated factors, such as self-concept and emotional intelligence in this context. This study aims to analyse the relationship between strategies used for coping, as well as self-concept, social skills, and emotional intelligence. With this in mind, the study assessed the different strategies used for coping with daily stress, self-concept, social skills, and emotional intelligence. The sample consisted of a mixture of 154 secondary school pupils and students on other training courses. The results showed no statistically significant differences between students in secondary school education and those on training courses in relation to any of the variables in the study. Students with a greater use of productive coping strategies (i.e. active solutions, search for information and guidance, and positive attitude) scored higher in the self-concept academic variables, social skills and emotional intelligence. Inverse relationships were observed between academic self-concept and the strategy ‘indifference’, and between emotional intelligence (emotional repair) and aggressive behaviour. There are positive direct effects of social skills and some dimensions of self-concept in relation to the use of productive coping strategies, such as ‘search for information and guidance’. There are negative direct effects of social skills and self-concept in relation to unproductive coping strategies (social skills in aggressive behaviour and physical self-concept on behavioural avoidance).

The present investigation examines the factorial structure of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being in university students; 1,402 students took part in the study. Participants were randomized into two independent homogeneous (calibration and validation) subsamples. Various theoretical models proposed by previous research were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Our results indicate that the four factor model (self-acceptance, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth) with no latent factors show the best fit to the empirical data. These findings are discussed according to theoretical and empirical implications.

PSICO-A is a computer system for learning Psychology. It is specially designed for secondary school children. It is the first system in Psychology designed for learning didactic units of the subject. PSICO-A is based on many pedagogical influences, such as concept maps, free retrieval practice, effective feedback, simulations, digital games, and metacognition. A significant improvement has been shown in the conceptual performance in those children that constructed computer-generated maps using the system compared to those that have drawn them by hand. An evaluation was also made of the interactions between concept mapping and simulations, demonstrating that the first group of pupils performed better in simulations than the second group. Further studies are needed to study the influence of these two conditions of concept mapping on the performance of digital games.