‘From a sense of failure to a proactive life orientation’: First year high school dropout experiences and future life expectations in Norwegian youth

Abstract

Employing a salutogenic perspective, we designed a qualitative study to explore experiences related to Norwegian students’ decision to leave school and their future life expectations. We identified a range of attitudes: pessimistic, discouraged participants found school to be equally lacking in care and support as their home background, whereas optimistic, proactive participants emphasized that supportive interactions with important others had made them believe in themselves and in alternative career tracks. The implications of our findings are discussed, focusing on social work that can empower marginalized young people to find new opportunities to succeed in school and employment.

Poorer self-reported mental health and general health among first year upper secondary school students do not predict school dropout: a five-year prospective study

“…Moreover, if students potentially improved their mental health status during the study period, these favourable changes may have aroused feelings of hope and positive expectations related to a new start. Another possibility is that an ongoing drop-out process may be associated with negative feelings, less efficient or unhelpful emotional regulatory strategies that were not present when beginning upper secondary school (Ottosen et al, 2017). Bania et al (2016) found that worse mental health predicted dropout exclusively among females, and boys dominated the vocational track where the dropout rates were highest.…”

Understanding School Dropouts Phenomenon among Youths through Behavioural Trends

“…While some research focuses on students' experiences in school, some studies emphasize school features, including school size and quality (Degroote, Demanet, & Van Houtte, 2020;Fortin et al, 2013). According to Fortin et al (2013), a student's persistence and success depend on the atmosphere of the classroom in which they learn as well as the calibre of the relationships they establish with their teachers and classmates.…”

Future Academic Expectations and Their Relationship with Motivation, Satisfaction of Psychological Needs, Responsibility, and School Social Climate: Gender and Educational Stage

“…Other research that investigated the variables that influence school dropout [ 9 ] found that gender, socio-economic background, family, and beliefs play a key role. In turn, others [ 10 , 11 ] consider individual factors (e.g., attitudes, self-regulation, self-perception, life goals, school involvement, and future expectations) are the main risk elements.…”

“…In this line, school failure, understood as the difficulties students have in meeting educational objectives [ 12 ], is considered one of the main factors associated with and predicting school drop-out [ 8 , 13 ]. On the other hand, students’ future academic expectations, defined as a person’s beliefs that a particular event will actually occur in the future, have a strong influence on target setting [ 14 ] and show a negative correlation with dropout [ 11 ]. The positive association between future expectations and self-perception allows a person who imagines a more positive future to have better academic results [ 15 ].…”

“…In recent years, the number of studies that analyzed this variable increased [ 23 , 29 ], finding a direct relationship with academic performance, intrinsic motivation, and basic psychological needs. Various research studies [ 11 , 30 ] indicate the importance of effective classroom management by teachers in creating a good learning climate and reducing both drop-out and failure. Therefore, the classroom climate can be considered a key element for increased academic and social performance [ 31 ].…”