Academic Well-Being, Mathematics Performance, and Educational Aspirations in Lower Secondary Education: Changes Within a School Year

Abstract

It has been suggested that both performance and academic well-being play a role in adolescent students' educational attainment and school dropout. In this study, we therefore examined, first, what kinds of academic well-being (i.e., school burnout, schoolwork engagement, and mathematics self-concept) and mathematics performance profiles can be identified among lower secondary school students (N_{grade 7} = 583, N_{grade 9} = 497); second, how stable these profiles are across one school year during the seventh and ninth grades; and, third, how students with different academic well-being and mathematics performance profiles differ with respect to their educational aspirations. By means of latent profile analyses, three groups of students in seventh grade: thriving (34%), average (51%), and negative academic well-being (15%) and four groups of students in ninth grade: thriving (25%), average (50%), negative academic well-being (18%), and low-performing (7%) with distinct well-being and mathematics performance profiles were identified. Configural frequency analyses revealed that the profiles were relatively stable across one school year; 60% of the students displayed identical profiles over time. The thriving students reported the highest educational aspirations compared to the other groups. In addition, the low-performing students in the ninth grade had the lowest educational aspirations just before the transition to upper secondary school. Practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: academic well-being; educational aspirations; mathematics; performance; person-centered approach; school burnout; schoolwork engagement; self-concept.

FIGURE 1

Seventh grade students’ latent mean scores on mathematics performance and academic well-being scales as a function of group membership.

FIGURE 2

Ninth grade students’ latent mean scores on mathematics performance and academic well-being scales as a function of group membership.

FIGURE 3

Statistical types and antitypes in seventh grade. Straight lines indicate pathways between time points identified as statistical types; broken lines indicate pathways identified as statistical antitypes.

FIGURE 4

Statistical types and antitypes in ninth grade. Straight lines indicate pathways between time points identified as statistical types; broken lines indicate pathways identified as statistical antitypes.