Top

Gepubliceerd in:

24-08-2023 | Empirical Research

Is Academic Agency Relevant for the School-to-Work Transition of Lower Attainers? Evidence from Canada and England

Auteurs: Guillaume Descary, Véronique Dupéré, Sophie T. Hebert, Ingrid Schoon

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 12/2023

Abstract

Academic agency is recognized as an important predictor of higher education attainment among the general population during the school-to-work transition. However, there is little evidence on whether (a) academic agency is associated with higher education attainment among young people facing education difficulties (i.e., lower attainers), (b) academic agency is associated with a smooth entry in a meaningful job among lower attainers, and (c) these associations vary across educational contexts. This study draws on longitudinal data from lower attainers in the province of Québec (M_age = 16.31, SD = 0.98; 48% females) and in England (M_age = 15.86, SD = 0.72; 42% females), two regions with similar education systems, yet different vocational training provision. In both samples, fewer than one in four participants reach higher education by age 20. Also, in both countries academic agency is associated with a greater likelihood of being in higher education compared to other employment and education outcomes at age 20, but not with rapid entry into meaningful employment. Thus, focussing on higher education attainment and academic-related factors such as academic agency is of limited relevance for understanding lower attainers’ success over school-to work transitions. For them, understanding this transition also requires considering rapid entry in meaningful employment, as well as non-academic forms of agency supporting such work-oriented outcomes.

vorige artikel Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Self-Cutting Behavior Among Adolescents at First Contact with the Juvenile Court

volgende artikel Parental Academic Socialization and Youth Adjustments: A Comparison of Korean Youth in South Korea, China, and the United States

The measurement model reached metric invariance but not scalar invariance. Considering that the main goal of the study is not to compare latent means but rather to compare coefficients across groups, metric invariance is sufficient (Putnick & Bornstein, 2016).

Akkermans, J., Blokker, R., Buers, C., Van der Heijden, B., & De Vos, A. (2021). Ready, set, go! School-to-work transition in the new career. In E. A. Marshall & J. E. Symonds (Eds.), Young adult development at the school-to-work transition: International pathways processes (pp. 77–103). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941512.003.0004.

Akkermans, J., Paradniké, K., Van der Heijden, B. I., & De Vos, A. (2018). The best of both worlds: the role of career adaptability and career competencies in students’ well-being and performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1678. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01678.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Akkermans, J., & Tims, M. (2017). Crafting your career: how career competencies relate to career success via job crafting. Applied Psychology, 66(1), 168–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12082.CrossRef

Archambault, I., Janosz, M., Olivier, E., & Dupéré, V. (2022). Student engagement and school dropout: theories, evidence, and future directions. In A. L. Reschly & S. L. Christenson (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 331–355). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07853-8_16.

Arnold, C. H., Wheelahan, L., Moodie, G., Beaulieu, J., & Taylor-Cline, J.-C. (2018). Mapping the typology of transition systems in a liberal market economy: the case of Canada. Journal of Education and Work, 31(2), 125–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2017.1414941.CrossRef

Augsberger, A., Springwater, J. S., Hilliard-Koshinsky, G., Barber, K., & Martinez, L. S. (2019). Youth participation in policy advocacy: examination of a multi-state former and current foster care youth coalition. Children and Youth Services Review, 107, 104491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104491.CrossRef

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-839X.00024.CrossRefPubMed

Bathmaker, A.-M., & Orr, K. (2022). Higher vocational education in England in the 2010s: positioning, purpose, and possibilities in a highly stratified, high participation system of higher education. In E. Knight, A. Bathmaker, G. Moodie, K. Orr, S. Webb, & L. Wheelahan (Eds.), Equity and access to high skills through higher vocational education (pp. 59–80). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84502-5_4.

Beal, S. J., & Crockett, L. J. (2010). Adolescents’ occupational and educational aspirations and expectations: links to high school activities and adult educational attainment. Developmental Psychology, 46(1), 258–265. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017416.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Blanden, J. (2020). Education and inequality. In S. Bradley & C. Green (Eds.), The economics of education (pp. 119–131). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815391-8.00010-0.

Blustein, D. L., Chaves, A. P., Diemer, M. A., Gallagher, L. A., Marshall, K. G., Sirin, S., & Bhati, K. S. (2002). Voices of the forgotten half: the role of social class in the school-to-work transition. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(3), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.49.3.311.CrossRef

Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. Guilford Publications.

Burger, K. (2021). Human agency in educational trajectories: evidence from a stratified system. European Sociological Review, 37(6), 952–971. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcab021.CrossRef

Cabinet Office. (2009). Unleashing aspiration. The final report of the panel on fair access to the professions. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/227102/fair-access.pdf.

Chase, P. A., Hilliard, L. J., John Geldhof, G., Warren, D. J., & Lerner, R. M. (2014). Academic achievement in the high school years: the changing role of school engagement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 884–896. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-0085-4.CrossRefPubMed

Chenard, P., & Doray, P. (2013). L’accessibilité aux études postsecondaires au Québec: quelles démocratisations. In P. Chenard, P. Doray, E. L. Dussault, & M. Ringuette (Eds.), L’accessibilité aux études supérieures: un projet inachevé (pp. 49–67). Presses de l’Université de Québec.

Chevalère, J., Cazenave, L., Wollast, R., Berthon, M., Martinez, R., Mazenod, V., Borion, M.-C., Pailler, D., Rocher, N., & Cadet, R. (2022). The influence of socioeconomic status, working memory and academic self-concept on academic achievement. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 38, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-022-00599-9.CrossRef

Cohen, R. (2023). Stop requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need them : employers are finally tearing down the “paper ceiling” in hiring. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy/23628627/degree-inflation-college-bacheors-stars-labor-worker-paper-ceiling.

DfE. (2011). LSYPE user guide to the datasets: wave 1 to Wave 7. http://doc.ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/5545/mrdoc/pdf/5545lsype_user_guide_wave_1_to_wave_7.pdf.

Duffy, R. D., Allan, B. A., England, J. W., Blustein, D. L., Autin, K. L., Douglass, R. P., Ferreira, J., & Santos, E. J. (2017). The development and initial validation of the decent work scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000191.CrossRefPubMed

Dumont, H., Protsch, P., Jansen, M., & Becker, M. (2017). Fish swimming into the ocean: How tracking relates to students’ self-beliefs and school disengagement at the end of schooling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(6), 855–870. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000175.CrossRef

Duncan, G. J., Engel, M., Claessens, A., & Dowsett, C. J. (2014). Replication and robustness in developmental research. Developmental Psychology, 50(11), 2417–2425. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037996.CrossRefPubMed

Dupéré, V., Dion, E., Leventhal, T., Archambault, I., Crosnoe, R., & Janosz, M. (2018). High school dropout in proximal context: the triggering role of stressful life events. Child Development, 89(2), e107–e122. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12792.CrossRefPubMed

Eccles, J. (2005). Subjective task value and the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence motivation (pp. 105–121). Guilford Publications.

Fishman, S. H. (2022). College-for-some or college-for-all? Inequality in the relationship between educational expectations and educational attainment across academic achievement. Social Science Research, 107, 102747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102747.CrossRefPubMed

Galla, B. M., Shulman, E. P., Plummer, B. D., Gardner, M., Hutt, S. J., Goyer, J. P., D’Mello, S. K., Finn, A. S., & Duckworth, A. L. (2019). Why high school grades are better predictors of on-time college graduation than are admissions test scores: the roles of self-regulation and cognitive ability. American Educational Research Journal, 56(6), 2077–2115. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219843292.CrossRef

Governement of Canada. (2016). National occupational classification. Governement of Canada.

Heckhausen, J., & Buchmann, M. (2019). A multi-disciplinary model of life-course canalization and agency. Advances in Life Course Research, 41, 100246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2018.09.002.CrossRefPubMed

Heckhausen, J., & Chang, E. S. (2009). Can ambition help overcome social inequality in the transition to adulthood? Individual agency and societal opportunities in Germany and the United States. Research in Human Development, 6(4), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427600903281244.CrossRef

Holtmann, A. C., Menze, L., & Solga, H. (2017). Persistent disadvantages or new opportunities? The role of agency and structural constraints for low-achieving adolescents’ school-to-work transitions. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(10), 2091–2113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0719-z.CrossRefPubMed

Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118.CrossRef

Jerrim, J. (2012). The socio‐economic gradient in teenagers’ reading skills: how does England compare with other countries? Fiscal Studies, 33(2), 159–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5890.2012.00157.x.CrossRef

Jerrim, J., & Vignoles, A. (2015). University access for disadvantaged children: a comparison across countries. Higher Education, 70, 903–921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9878-6.CrossRef

Kamanzi, P. C. (2019). Marché scolaire et reproduction des inégalités sociales au Québec. Revue des Sciences de l’Éducation, 45(3), 140–165. https://doi.org/10.7202/1069643ar.CrossRef

Kamanzi, P. C., Magnan, M.-O., & Collins, T. (2022). Réussite exceptionnelle des étudiants canadiens d’origine immigrée: au-delà du portrait général. Hommes et migrations, 1336, 71–77. https://doi.org/10.4000/hommesmigrations.13603.CrossRef

Lupton, R., Thomson, S., Velthuis, S., & Unwin, L. (2021). Moving on from initial GCSE ‘failure’: Post-16 transitions for ‘lower attainers’ and why the English education system must do better. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Post16-transitions-for-lower-attainers-Final-report.pdf.

Marsh, H. W., & Martin, A. J. (2011). Academic self‐concept and academic achievement: relations and causal ordering. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(1), 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709910X503501.CrossRefPubMed

Marsh, H. W., Parker, P. D., Guo, J., Pekrun, R., & Basarkod, G. (2020). Psychological comparison processes and self–concept in relation to five distinct frame–of–reference effects: pan–human cross–cultural generalizability over 68 countries. European Journal of Personality, 34(2), 180–202. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2232.CrossRef

Marsh, H. W., Parker, P. D., & Pekrun, R. (2018). Three paradoxical effects on academic self-concept across countries, schools, and students. European Psychologist, 24(3), 231–242. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000332.CrossRef

Masdonati, J., Fournier, G., & Pinault, M. (2015). La formation professionnelle au Québec: le regard des élèves. L’orientation scolaire et professionnelle, 44(2). https://doi.org/10.4000/osp.4590.

Masdonati, J., Massoudi, K., Blustein, D. L., & Duffy, R. D. (2022). Moving toward decent work: application of the psychology of working theory to the school-to-work transition. Journal of Career Development, 49(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845321991681.CrossRef

Medvide, M. B., Kozan, S., Blustein, D. L., & Kenny, M. E. (2019). School to work transition of non-college bound youth: an integration of the life design paradigm and the Psychology of Working Theory. In J. Maree (Ed.), Handbook of innovative career counselling (pp. 157–172). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22799-9_10.

Mortimer, J. T., & Shanahan, M. J. (2007). Handbook of the life course. Springer

Muja, A., Gesthuizen, M., & Wolbers, M. H. (2021). Vocational education and youth labor market integration. In E. A. Marshall & J. E. Symonds (Eds.), Young adult development at the school-to-work transition: International pathways processes (pp. 268–292). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190941512.001.0001.

Murray, C., Kosty, D., Doren, B., Gau, J. M., & Seeley, J. R. (2021). Patterns of early adult work and postsecondary participation among individuals with high-incidence disabilities: a longitudinal person-centered analysis. Developmental Psychology, 57, 584–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001163.CrossRefPubMed

Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2017). Mplus: statistical analysis with latent variables: user’s guide (Version 8).

Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2017). Mplus: Statistical Analysis with Latent Variables: User’s Guide (Version 8). Los Angeles, CA: Authors.

OECD. (2014). PISA 2012 Results: what students know and can do – student performance in mathematics, reading and science (Volume I, Revised edition), PISA, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264201118-en.

OECD. (2023). Population with tertiary education (indicator). https://doi.org/10.1787/0b8f90e9-en.

Pensiero, N., & Schoon, I. (2019). Social inequalities in educational attainment: the changing impact of parents’ social class, social status, education and family income, England 1986 and 2010. Longitudinal Life Course Studies, 10(1), 87–108. https://doi.org/10.1332/175795919X15468755933380.CrossRef

Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: the state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review, 41, 71–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.004.CrossRefPubMed

Quillian, L., & Midtbøen, A. H. (2021). Comparative perspectives on racial discrimination in hiring: the rise of field experiments. Annual Review of Sociology, 47, 391–415. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090420-035144.CrossRef

Raffe, D. (2011). Cross-national differences in education-work transitions. In P. E. Nathan (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of lifelong learning (pp. 312–328). Oxford University Press.

Reeve, F., & Gallacher, J. (2022). Higher vocational qualifications: Differing approaches within the United Kingdom to meeting skills needs for the twenty-first century. In E. Knight, A. Bathmaker, G. Moodie, K. Orr, S. Webb, & L. Wheelahan (Eds.), Equity and access to high skills through higher vocational education (pp. 145–167). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84502-5_8.

Reynolds, J. R., & Johnson, M. K. (2011). Change in the stratification of educational expectations and their realization. Social Forces, 90(1), 85–109. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/90.1.85.CrossRef

Rosenbaum, J. E. (2001). Beyond college for all: career paths for the forgotten half. Russell Sage Foundation.

Schoon, I. (2015). Diverse pathways: rethinking the transition to adulthood. In P. R. Amato, A. Booth, S. M. McHale, & J. Van Hook (Eds.), Families in an era of increasing inequality (pp. 115–136). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08308-7_9.

Schoon, I. (2021). The interplay of structure and agency in the school-to-work transition. In M. Nico & A. Caetano (Eds.), Structure and agency in young people’s lives (pp. 45–60). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429324314.

Schoon, I., & Cook, R. (2021). Can individual agency compensate for background disadvantage? Predicting tertiary educational attainment among males and females. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(3), 408–422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01290-2.CrossRefPubMed

Schoon, I., & Heckhausen, J. (2019). Conceptualizing individual agency in the transition from school to work: a social-ecological developmental perspective. Adolescent Research Review, 4(2), 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00111-3.CrossRef

Schoon, I., & Henseke, G. (2023). Navigating an uncertain future. How schools can support career adaptability of young people in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Zeitschrift fur Psychology, 23(3), 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000530.CrossRef

Schoon, I., & Lyons-Amos, M. (2017). A socio-ecological model of agency: the role of structure and agency in shaping education and employment transitions in England. Longitudinal and life course studies, 8(1), 35–56. https://doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v8i1.404.CrossRef

Schulenberg, J., & Schoon, I. (2012). The transition to adulthood across time and space: overview of special section. Longitudinal Life Course Studies, 3(2), 164. https://doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v3i2.194.CrossRefPubMed

Schwartz, S. J., Côté, J. E., & Arnett, J. J. (2005). Identity and agency in emerging adulthood: two developmental routes in the individualization process. Youth Society, 37(2), 201–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X05275965.CrossRef

Spohrer, K. (2016). Negotiating and contesting ‘success’: discourses of aspiration in a UK secondary school. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(3), 411–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1044423.CrossRef

Steinmayr, R., Weidinger, A. F., Schwinger, M., & Spinath, B. (2019). The importance of students’ motivation for their academic achievement–replicating and extending previous findings. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1730. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01730.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Strand, S. (2014). Ethnicity, gender, social class and achievement gaps at age 16: intersectionality and ‘getting it’for the white working class. Research Papers in Education, 29(2), 131–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2013.767370.CrossRef

Thouin, E., Dupéré, V., & Denault, A.-S. (2023a). Paid employment in adolescence and rapid integration in a career job in early adulthood among vulnerable youth: the identity connection. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 142(103864). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103864.

Thouin, E., Dupéré, V., Denault, A.-S., & Schoon, I. (2023b). Beyond college for all: Portrait of rapid and successful school-to-work transitions among vulnerable youth. Developmental Psychology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001536.

Tomaszewski, W., Xiang, N., & Western, M. (2020). Student engagement as a mediator of the effects of socio‐economic status on academic performance among secondary school students in Australia. British Educational Research Journal, 46(3), 610–630. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3599.CrossRef

University College London, UCL Institute of Education, Centre for Longitudinal Studies (2023). Next Steps: Sweeps 1-8, 2004-2016. [data collection]. 16th Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 5545. https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-5545-8.

Voyer, D., & Voyer, S. D. (2014). Gender differences in scholastic achievement: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 1174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036620.CrossRefPubMed

Walther, A. (2022). Welfare states as transition regimes: Reconstruction from international comparisons of young people’s transitions to work. In B. Stauber, R. A. Settersten Jr, & A. Walther (Eds.), Doing transitions in the life course (pp. 37–53). Springer. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/58643/978-3-031-13512-5.pdf?sequence=1#page=48.

Webb, S. (2022). Higher vocational education and the matter of equity. In E. Knight, A.-M. Bathmaker, G. Moodie, K. Orr, S. Webb, & L. Wheelahan (Eds.), Equity and access to high skills through higher vocational education (pp. 9–35). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84502-5_2.

Wen, Z., Hau, K.-T., & Herbert, W. M. (2004). Structural equation model testing: cutoff criteria for goodness of fit indices and chi-square test. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 36(02), 186–194. https://journal.psych.ac.cn/acps/EN/Y2004/V36/I02/186.

Wheelahan, L. (2022). Why isn’t there more higher education in colleges in liberal market countries? In E. Knight, A.-M. Bathmaker, G. Moodie, K. Orr, S. Webb, & L. Wheelahan (Eds.), Equity and access to high skills through higher vocational education (pp. 269–290). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84502-5_13

Wheelahan, L., & Moodie, G. (2017). Vocational education qualifications’ roles in pathways to work in liberal market economies. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 69(1), 10–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2016.1275031.CrossRef

Titel: Is Academic Agency Relevant for the School-to-Work Transition of Lower Attainers? Evidence from Canada and England
Auteurs: Guillaume Descary
Véronique Dupéré
Sophie T. Hebert
Ingrid Schoon
Publicatiedatum: 24-08-2023
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 12/2023
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01843-1

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Andere artikelen Uitgave 12/2023

TikToks Lead to Higher Knowledge and Perceived Severity of Sexual Violence among Adolescent Men

When is Solitude Maladaptive for Adolescents? A Comprehensive Study of Sociability and Characteristics of Solitude

A Latent Profile Analysis of Lie-Telling to Parents and Friends during Adolescence

Adolescent-Mother Agreements and Discrepancies in Reports of Helicopter Parenting: Associations with Perceived Conflict and Support

“Help Me Control My Impulses!”: Adolescent Impulsivity and Its Negative Individual, Family, Peer, and Community Explanatory Factors

Interpersonal Stress and Late Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Moderation by Perceptual Sensitivity to Facial Expression of Anger