Social-Normative Expectations Mediates School Climate’s Association With Academic Achievement in Latino Middle School Students

《Social-Normative Expectations Mediates School Climate’s Association With Academic Achievement in Latino Middle School Students》

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作者: Perry J. Bell, Gwyne W. White, Danielle R. Hatchimonji, Cesalie T. Stepney, Arielle V. Linsky, Esha Vaid, Maurice J. Elias

作者单位: 1The Pingry School, Basking Ridge, NJ, USA;2William James College, Newton, MA, USA;3Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA;4University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA;5Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH, USA

摘要: Many Latino students miss opportunities to develop their full potential in U.S. schools. Increasing attention is being paid to the malleable, nonacademic, factors that can affect student learning. The current study sought to evaluate the impact of school climate on Language Arts grade for Latino students in a large, low-income, urban middle school. In addition, the novel construct of Social-Normative Expectations, student perceptions of school-wide norms about achievement expectations for their peers, was explored in relation to school climate and academic achievement. The study sample reflected 513 Latino students, Grades 7 and 8. A mediation model found that approximately 30% of the variance in final Language Arts grades was accounted for by the predictors, including control variables (R2 = .299). A distinctive mediation effect was also found, whereby the impact of school climate was associated with an approximately .6 points lower final grade mediated through the indirect pathway of Social-Normative Expectations (b = −0.064, SE = 0.019, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [−0.104, −0.028]). Implications of these findings are discussed.