Social Support Matters: Longitudinal Effects of Social Support on Three Dimensions of School Engagement From Middle to High School

TLDR

This study examined how adolescents’ supportive relationships with teachers, peers, and parents influence trajectories of different dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school, and how these associations vary by gender and race/ethnicity. The study used a longitudinal sample of 1,479 students (52 % female, 56 % African American) to assess these relationships. Growth trajectories of school compliance, extracurricular participation, school identification, and subjective valuing of learning declined from 7th to 11th grade, with peer support more strongly predicting compliance and less strongly predicting identification than teacher support, and the importance of support sources varied by engagement dimension.

Abstract

This study examined the relative influence of adolescents' supportive relationships with teachers, peers, and parents on trajectories of different dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school and how these associations differed by gender and race or ethnicity. The sample consisted of 1,479 students (52% females, 56% African American). The average growth trajectories of school compliance, participation in extracurricular activities, school identification, and subjective valuing of learning decreased from 7th to 11th grades (mean ages = 12.9 years to 17.2 years). Different sources of social support were not equally important in their impact on school engagement, and the effect of these sources differed by the aspect of engagement studied. For instance, peer social support predicted adolescents' school compliance more strongly and school identification less strongly than teacher social support.