Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Positive Affect and School Related Outcomes: Feeling Good Facilitates School Engagement Among Turkish-Bulgarian Minority Adolescents

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 12))

Abstract

Fredrickson’s (Rev Gen Psychol 2:300–319, 1998, Am Psychol 56:218–226, 2001) Broaden and Build Theory (BBT) proposes that experiencing positive affect results in broadened thoughts and behaviors, which facilitate adaptive responses to various environmental conditions. The present chapter tests the applicability of this theory for school engagement in an acculturation context and examines whether or to what extent positive affect also facilitates school engagement for 201 Turkish-Bulgarian adolescents (59% male) aged 14–19 years. Results showed that experiencing positive affect was positively related to school engagement among Turkish-Bulgarian youth, and thereby provide support for the applicability of Fredrickson’s theory in an acculturation context. Findings highlight the role of positive affect for school engagement and can be used to facilitate the adaptation process of youth by promoting the creation of environments in which the experience of positive affect is fostered.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bond, L., Butler, H., Thomas, L., Carlin, J., Glover, S., Bowes, G., et al. (2007). Social and school connectedness in early secondary school as predictors of late teenage substance use, mental health, and academic outcomes. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40, 357–362.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borman, G. D., & Overman, L. T. (2004). Academic resilience in mathematics among poor and minority students. The Elementary School Journal, 104, 177–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borman, G. D., & Rachuba, L. (2001). Academic success among poor and minority students: An analysis of competing models of school effects, Report No. 52. Baltimore, MD: Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk, Johns Hopkins University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., Appleton, J. J., Berman, S., Spanjers, D., & Varro, P. (2008). Best practices in fostering student engagement. Best Practices in School Psychology, 5, 1099–1120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J. P., Spencer, M. B., & Aber, J. L. (1994). Educational risk and resilience in African-American youth: Context, self, action, and outcomes in school. Child Development, 65, 493–506.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34–43.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrov, V. (2000). In search of a homogeneous nation: The assimilation of Bulgaria’s Turkish minority, 1984–1985. European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) Report. Flensburg, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimitrova, R. (2014). Does your identity make you happy? Collective identifications and acculturation of youth in a post-communist Europe. Doctoral dissertation. Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eminov, A. (2007). Social construction of identities: Pomaks in Bulgaria. Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 2, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn, J. D., & Rock, D. A. (1997). Academic success among students at risk for school failure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 221–234.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, J. D., & Voelkl, K. E. (1993). School characteristics related to student engagement. The Journal of Negro Education, 62, 249–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2000). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions-Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences, 359, 1367–1378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19, 313–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13, 172–175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1998). Positive emotions speed recovery from the cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 12, 191–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., Mancuso, R. A., Branigan, C., & Tugade, M. (2000). The undoing effect of positive emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 24, 237–258.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M. (2000). Positive effect and decision making. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 417–435). New York, NY: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York, NY: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindermann, T. A. (1993). Natural peer groups as contexts for individual development: The case of children’s motivation in school. Developmental Psychology, 29, 970–977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, R. B., McInerney, D. M., Ganotice, F. A., & Villarosa, J. B. (2015). Positive affect catalyzes academic engagement: Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental evidence. Learning and Individual Differences, 39, 64–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T. M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea, R. M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 79, 540–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, V. E., & Smith, J. B. (1995). Effects of high school restructuring and size on early gains in achievement and engagement. Sociology of Education, 68, 241–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maeva, M. (2005). Bulgarian Turks and the European Union. In H. Rusu & B. Voicu (Eds.), EU Integration process from EAST to EAST: Civil society and ethnic minorities in a changing world. Proceedings from a round table for young social scientists (pp. 119–126). Sibiu, Romania: Psihomedia Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, H. M. (2000). Student engagement in instructional activity: Patterns in the elementary, middle, and high school years. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 153–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Statistical Institute (NSI). (2004). Social and demographic characteristics of the population. Sofia, Bulgaria: NSI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pekrun, R., Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2009). Achievement goals and achievement emotions: Testing a model of their joint relations with academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 115–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Psychologist, 37, 91–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petkova, L. (2002). The ethnic Turks in Bulgaria: Social integration and impact on Bulgarian-Turkish relations, 1947–2000. The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, 1, 42–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ream, R. K., & Rumberger, R. W. (2008). Student engagement, peer social capital, and school dropout among Mexican American and non-Latino white students. Sociology of Education, 81, 109–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reschly, A. L., Huebner, E. S., Appleton, J. J., & Antaramian, S. (2008). Engagement as flourishing: The contribution of positive emotions and coping to adolescents’ engagement at school and with learning. Psychology in the Schools, 45, 419–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruck, M. D., & Wortley, S. (2002). Racial and ethnic minority high school students’ perceptions of school disciplinary practices: A look at some Canadian findings. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31, 185–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudin, C., & Eminov, A. (1993). Bulgarian nationalism and Turkish language in Bulgaria. In E. Fraenkel & C. Kramer (Eds.), Language contact language conflict. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmela-Aro, K., & Upadaya, K. (2012). The Schoolwork Engagement Inventory: Energy, dedication, and absorption (EDA). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28, 60–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, E. A., Wellborn, J. G., & Connell, J. P. (1990). What it takes to do well in school and whether I’ve got it: A process model of perceived control and children’s engagement and achievement in school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 22–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, J. P., & Fullagar, C. J. (2009). Facilitators and outcomes of student engagement in a college setting. The Journal of Psychology, 143, 5–27.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L., Blinde, P. L., & Chan, K. S. (1984). Dropping out among language minority youth. Review of Educational Research, 54, 113–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997). Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M. T., & Eccles, J. S. (2013). School context, achievement motivation, and academic engagement: A longitudinal study of school engagement using a multidimensional perspective. Learning and Instruction, 28, 12–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support by a COFAS FORTE (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare) Marie Curie Grant (Forte Projekt 2013-2669) and Japan Society for Promotion of Science Grant (JSPS PE 15763) to the last author. We are extremely grateful to the following organizations and people in Bulgaria – Eva Jecheva and the National Agency for Child Protection, all schools, students and teachers and particularly Neli Filipova, Ivanina Noncheva, Zvetan Terziev, Elena Ianeva, Venizslav Chobanov, Kamelia Mateva and Petko Petkov for their help in carrying out the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Arzu Aydinli-Karakulak

  2. Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Ayben Baylar & Seray Çağla Keleş

  3. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Radosveta Dimitrova

  4. Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan

    Radosveta Dimitrova

Authors
  1. Arzu Aydinli-Karakulak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ayben Baylar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Seray Çağla Keleş
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Radosveta Dimitrova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Radosveta Dimitrova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Radosveta Dimitrova

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Aydinli-Karakulak, A., Baylar, A., Keleş, S.Ç., Dimitrova, R. (2017). Positive Affect and School Related Outcomes: Feeling Good Facilitates School Engagement Among Turkish-Bulgarian Minority Adolescents. In: Dimitrova, R. (eds) Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures . Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68363-8_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation