1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The goal was to determine: (1) the extent to which children’s social-behavioural resources (including problem behaviours, attention, and social skills) at school entry explain these gaps; and (2) the role of parental school involvement in protecting against academic decline.» (p. iii)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«We hypothesized that boys would display more externalizing and attentional problems, which would contribute to their lower academic performance. We hypothesized that girls would not exhibit these externalizing and attentional problems and instead, would have greater
social skills, which would protect them from academic underperformance. We hypothesized that gender differences social-behavioural skills would be evident at the beginning of elementary school, but the gender gap in academic trajectories would emerge at the transition to secondary school [...] A central hypothesis of the present study was that parental involvement in schooling would exert a positive impact on all children’s academic performance, beginning in elementary school.» (p. 13)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The children and their families are part of the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project (Concordia Project), a large, prospective, intergenerational community-based research project that examines the processes that are associated with positive versus negative social and health outcomes across the life course of at-risk families. […] A representative sub-sample of 126 participants who had children (55 boys) in the second cycle of secondary schooling (i.e., equivalent in the Quebec system to grades 9 to 11, mean age = 16.53 years, SD = 1.44) participated in the current study.» (p. 14)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«Results revealed a decline in academic performance associated with the transition to secondary for all children; however, boys (who as a group had lower social-behavioural competencies than girls) experienced the greatest rate of decline. A protective effect of teacher rated parental involvement emerged. Teacher rated involvement predicted children’s grades at the end of elementary school, although these effects were stronger for boys than girls. For boys only, teacher rated involvement exerted large protective effects against academic decline over time. In contrast, mother rated involvement was negatively associated with boys and girls’ elementary school grades, but had no lasting impact on academic trajectories. Results suggest the protective effects of parental involvement among at-risk populations may vary according to reporter and child gender.» (p. iii-iv)