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Effect of grade retention in first grade on psychosocial outcomes and school relationships (2010)
| Venue: | Journal of Educational Psychology |
| Citations: | 2 - 0 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Wu10effectof,
author = {Wei Wu and Stephen G. West and Jan N. Hughes},
title = {Effect of grade retention in first grade on psychosocial outcomes and school relationships},
journal = {Journal of Educational Psychology},
year = {2010},
pages = {135--152}
}
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Abstract
In a 4-year longitudinal study, the authors investigated effects of retention in first grade on children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors; social acceptance; and behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement. From a large multiethnic sample (n = 784) of children below the median on literacy at school entrance, 124 retained children were matched with 251 promoted children on the basis of propensity scores (probability of being retained in first grade estimated from 72 baseline variables). Relative to promoted children, retained children were found to benefit from retention in both the short and longer terms with respect to decreased teacher-rated hyperactivity, decreased peer-rated sadness and withdrawal, and increased teacher-rated behavioral engagement. Retained children had a short-term increase in mean peer-rated liking and school belongingness relative to promoted children, but this advantage showed a substantial decrease in the longer term. Retention had a positive short-term effect on children’s perceived school belonging and a positive longer term effect on perceived academic self-efficacy. Retention may bestow advantages in the short-term, but longer term detrimental effects on social acceptance may lead to the documented longer term negative effects of retention. Keywords grade retention; growth curve model; propensity score; optimal matching; psychosocial outcomes For at least the past 4 decades, grade retention, the practice of having a student who has been in a given grade level for a full school year to remain at that level for a subsequent school year, has been a common but controversial educational practice (Holmes, 1989; Jackson, 1975; Lorence, 2006). With the increase in high stakes testing that began in the early 1990s and the related requirement that students meet grade-level academic competencies, grade retention has
Keyphrases
grade retention first grade psychosocial outcome promoted child school relationship social acceptance propensity score short-term increase teacher-rated hyperactivity affective engagement perceived academic self-efficacy teacher-rated behavioral engagement peer-rated sadness mean peer-rated liking school entrance term detrimental effect grade level child externalizing large multiethnic sample subsequent school year baseline variable high stake optimal matching term effect controversial educational practice full school year positive short-term effect term negative effect 4-year longitudinal study substantial decrease keywords grade retention grade-level academic competency perceived school belonging internalizing behavior related requirement
