Students' gradual disconnection from school in adolescence, as reflected in decreased school engagement, has been demonstrated in several cultures and is of great concern to educators. At the same time, intentional self-regulation (ISR) has been shown to be a precursor, mediator, and outcome of school engagement. However, the relation between school engagement and ISR during adolescence is poorly understood. In this research, we explored the reciprocal relation between school engagement and ISR during adolescence. Based on a sample of 561 adolescents in Iceland (46% girls; M age at Wave 1 = 14.3 years; SD = 0.3) and four waves of data collected during Grades 9 and 10, the results demonstrated a reciprocal relation between school engagement and ISR after controlling for several covariates (e.g., gender and academic achievement). The results suggest that school engagement and ISR are highly related, yet distinct concepts, which mutually reinforce each other during adolescence.

School engagement involves cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components that overlap conceptually. This conceptual ambiguity has led to measures that have either consisted of one general factor or separate correlated factors. However, neither approach can sufficiently account for both the uniqueness and the overlap of the subcomponents. The bifactor model has been recommended to determine the degree to which a measure is unidimensional versus multidimensional. In this study, we examined the validity of a multidimensional measure of school engagement in adolescence, the Behavioral-Emotional-Cognitive School Engagement Scale (BEC-SES;Li & Lerner, 2013), by comparing the model fit and predictive power of the widely-used one-and three-factor models with a bifactor model. Using data from 561 youth in Iceland (46% girls, M age at Wave 1 ¼ 14.3 years, SD ¼ 0.3), only the multidimensional models (i.e., the threefactor and bifactor models) gave a good fit to the data. We then assessed the predictive power of the multidimensional models for academic achievement. The addition of academic achievement as an outcome variable to the bifactor model revealed that general school engagement, as well as specific behavioral engagement, predicted achievement. These findings are distinct from previous results using three-factor models, which indicated that behavioral engagement alone predicted later achievement. The results of the current study support the use of a bifactor model when using measures of school engagement.

Intentional self-regulation (ISR) undergoes significant development across the life span. However, our understanding of ISR’s development and function remains incomplete, in part because the field’s conceptualization and measurement of ISR vary greatly. A key sample case involves how Baltes and colleagues’ Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) model of ISR, which was developed with adult populations, may be applied to understand and measure adolescent self-regulation. The tripartite structure of SOC identified in older populations has not been replicated in adolescent samples. This difference may be due to measurement issues. In this article, we addressed whether using a Likert-type format instead of a forced-choice format of the SOC Questionnaire resulted in a tripartite factor structure when used with an adolescent population. Using data from 578 late adolescents who participated in the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (70.80% female), we showed that the two versions of the measure produced a similar factor structure and were similar in terms of reliability and validity, although the traditional forced-choice version provided data with slightly lower criterion validity. We therefore conclude that both types of the measure are acceptable, but the choice of measure may depend on the sample in question and the analytical approach planned for the findings. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.

Since 2000, there has been a steady decline in the reading comprehension performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD, 2017) for Icelandic adolescents (Directorate of Education, 2017; Ólafsdóttir & Sigurðsson, 2017). No participating country has demonstrated a sharper drop in mean scores on this measurement. Icelandic educators are concerned that the large number of adolescents who demonstrate poor performance are not mastering advanced Icelandic vocabulary, as that is a key variable that explains their low achievement (Birgisdóttir, 2016). Consistently, Icelandic vocabulary has emerged as a strong influencing factor on the rate of growth in reading comprehension over the middle school years among pupils with Icelandic as a first and as a second language (Ólafsdóttir, Birgisdóttir, Ragnarsdóttir, & Skúlason, 2016). Our goal was to provide high school pupils opportunities to enrich their academic vocabularies. Few research projects have focused on high school (versus younger) students' learning of vocabulary. We hope that the global context of this research will be of interest to many practitioners and scholars. This project, a collaboration among teachers and teacher educators, was initiated by Icelandic educators. The focus was to advance the pedagogy of high school teachers with the aim of advancing the vocabulary and reading comprehension of their students. We offered specific literacy professional development with Icelandic teachers from multiple disciplines. Research on effective professional development (PD) for teachers of reading (Laster & Finkelstein, 2016; Sailors, 2009) framed this project.

Kynjamunur á lesskilningi, þar sem stúlkur standa sig betur en drengir, er nokkuð þekktur víða um heim. Einnig er vitað að virk þátttaka stúlkna í skólastarfi er meiri en drengja en tengsl virkrar þátttöku í skólastarfi og lesskilnings eru hins vegar minna þekkt. Aukin þekking á þessu sviði getur átt þátt í að bæta lesskilning ungmenna auk þess að draga úr þeim kynjamun sem fram kemur á lesskilningi. Markmið rannsóknarinnar var að kanna (1) hvort kynjamunur kæmi fram á lesskilningi og virkri þátttöku í skólastarfi, (2) að hve miklu leyti kynjamunur á virkri þátttöku í skólastarfi geti skýrt kynjamun á lesskilningi (miðlunartilgáta) og (3) hvort virk þátttaka í skólastarfi skipti jafn miklu máli fyrir drengi og stúlkur þegar kemur að árangri í lesskilningi (tilgáta um mismunandi áhrif). Rannsóknin er byggð á gögnum úr langtímarannsókninni Þróun sjálfstjórnunar og farsæll þroski ungmenna á Íslandi. Alls tók 561 nemandi þátt. Mæling á virkri þátttöku í skólastarfi fór fram við upphaf 9. bekkjar og notaðar voru niðurstöður sömu nemenda úr lesskilningshluta samræmdra prófa í íslensku við upphaf 10. bekkjar. Formgerðargreining var notuð til að prófa tilgátur rannsóknarinnar. Drengir komu verr út úr lesskilningsprófum og sýndu minni virka þátttöku í skólastarfi en stúlkur. Virk þátttaka miðlaði að fullu áhrifum kyns á lesskilning og ekki fannst greinanlegur munur á forspá virkrar þátttöku í skólastarfi um lesskilning eftir kyni. Því er hugsanlegt að kynjamuninn á lesskilningi hafi mátt rekja til skorts á virkri þátttöku drengja í skólastarfi og að aukinn stuðningur við virka þátttöku í skólastarfi sé líklegur til að skila sér í auknum lesskilningi hjá báðum kynjum.