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Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of a Dual-Factor Model: Mental Health Status and Academic Outcomes for High School Students in Academically Accelerated Curricula

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Abstract

A dual-factor model (DFM) of mental health conceptualizes complete mental health as both low levels of psychopathology and high levels of subjective well-being (SWB). Although middle adolescence (ages 14 to 18 years old) is associated with increases in symptoms of psychopathology and declines in SWB, further research is needed to understand how youths’ membership in a DFM changes across multiple time points. This study analyzed the stability of a DFM for students enrolled in accelerated coursework, and the relationship between initial mental health status and immediate and distal academic outcomes (i.e., student engagement and grade point average). A sample of 328 students reported on well-being, symptoms of psychopathology, and engagement (affective, behavioral, and cognitive) during the 9th grade fall, 9th grade spring, and 10th grade spring. School records indicated grade point averages at the end of 9th and 10th grade. Findings indicated that approximately 53% of youth changed mental health status over time, frequently due to a simultaneous increase in psychopathology and decrease in SWB. Results from multilevel modeling indicated that, regardless of level of psychopathology, initial low levels of SWB significantly predicted lower academic performance and student engagement over time compared to complete mental health (i.e., high SWB in combination with low psychopathology). Given students’ declining mental health across 9th and 10th grade, and the relationship between mental health and academic outcomes, educators should consider monitoring and fostering both positive and negative indicators of mental health during the start of high school.

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Data Availability

The data used in this study are part of an ongoing intervention study and not yet publicly available.

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Funding

The data reported here were collected as part of a larger study supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, through Grant R305A150543 to the University of South Florida. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the US Department of Education.

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  1. College of Education, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

    Letty L. DiLeo, Shannon M. Suldo, John M. Ferron & Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick

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  2. Shannon M. Suldo
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  3. John M. Ferron
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  4. Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Letty L. DiLeo, Shannon M. Suldo and Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick. Data analysis was performed by LL. DiLeo and JM. Ferron. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LL. DiLeo, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shannon M. Suldo.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (University of South Florida, IRB Number: Pro00022787) and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written consent was obtained from the parents of all participants. Written assent was obtained from all participating youth (high school students).

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Parents of all participants signed informed consent regarding publishing student data. Participating youth signed informed assent indicating their permission for publishing of findings from the study that included their data.

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DiLeo, L.L., Suldo, S.M., Ferron, J.M. et al. Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of a Dual-Factor Model: Mental Health Status and Academic Outcomes for High School Students in Academically Accelerated Curricula. School Mental Health 14, 514–530 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09497-9

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