“To be or not to be Retained … That’s the Question!” Retention, Self-esteem, Self-concept, Achievement Goals, and Grades

Abstract

Keeping students back in the same grade -retention -has always been a controversial issue in Education, with some defending it as a beneficial remedial practice and others arguing against its detrimental effects. This paper undertakes an analysis of this issue, focusing on the differences in student motivation and self-related variables according to their retention related status, and the interrelationship between retention and these variables. The participants were 695 students selected from two cohorts (5th and 7th graders) of a larger group of students followed over a 3-year project. The students were assigned to four groups according to their retention-related status over time: (1) students with past and recent retention; (2) students with past but no recent retention; (3) students with no past but recent retention; (4) students with no past or recent retention. Measures of achievement goal orientations, self-concept, self-esteem, importance given to school subjects and Grade Point Average (GPA) were collected for all students. Repeated measures MANCOVA analyses were carried out showing group differences in selfesteem, academic self-concept, importance attributed to academic competencies, task and avoidance orientation and academic achievement. To attain a deeper understanding of these results and to identify profiles across variables, a cluster analysis based on achievement goals was conducted and four clusters were identified. Students who were retained at the end of the school year are mainly represented in clusters with less adaptive motivational profiles and almost absent from clusters exhibiting more adaptive ones. Findings highlight that retention leaves a significant mark that remains even when students recover academic achievement and retention is in the distant past. This is reflected in the low academic self-concept as well as in the devaluation of academic competencies and in the avoidance orientation which, taken together, can undermine students' academic adjustment and turn retention into a risk factor.

Association Between Device-Measured Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity and Academic Performance in Adolescents

“…Students who feel connected to the school would be more engaged in their studies with, consequently, better academic performance (Blum, 2005). On the other hand, we found that having repeated a school grade was inversely correlated to academic performance, which corroborates with the results of Peixoto et al (2016), in which students who have repeated a school grade showed lower achievement and lower self-esteem and academic self-concept. Likewise, in the present study, having repeated a school grade was inversely correlated with behavioral adjustment self-concept and intellectual self-concept for boys, and inversely correlated with intellectual self-concept for girls (data not shown).…”

Striving for Success but at What Cost? Subject-Specific Achievement Goal Orientation Profiles, Perceived Cost, and Academic Well-Being

“…In turn, they do not exhibit performance-or avoidance-focused tendencies. A group of students holding a dominant tendency toward learning is identified in the vast majority of goal profile studies, both in relation to mathematics (e.g., Turner et al, 1998;Berger, 2012;Schwinger and Wild, 2012;Schwinger et al, 2016) and studying in general (Kolić-Vehovec et al, 2008;Tapola and Niemivirta, 2008;Pulkka and Niemivirta, 2013;Peixoto et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016). Given that the main schoolwork focus for these students is on learning, understanding, improvement, and self-comparison, their motivational profile appears very favorable.…”

“…In turn, students who exhibit low goal profiles have shown to manifest clearly less functional profile with regard to academic and socio-emotional functioning; for example, low performance, low enjoyment, high anxiety, and high boredom in mathematics ( Conley, 2012 ; Jang and Liu, 2012 ). Finally, students mainly emphasizing work-avoidance orientation have shown to exhibit the most unfavorable outcomes, for instance, depressive symptoms, cynicism, low engagement and valuing of school, relatively poor achievement, and grade retention ( Kolić-Vehovec et al, 2008 ; Tuominen-Soini et al, 2008 , 2012 ; Peixoto et al, 2016 ) and, in mathematics, low individual interest, utility value, and perceived ability and high anxiety ( Berger, 2012 ).…”

School-related experience and performance with inflammatory bowel disease: results from a cross-sectional survey in 675 children and their parents

“…There is debate both nationally as in the international literature on the usefulness of having to repeat a class. 42 43 In the context of long periods of missed time at school, getting more time may actually be considered beneficial by many children and their parents, in particular, as more than a third of the parents we surveyed reported their child with IBD to lag behind other children of similar age with respect to their physical development. Problems of self-esteem and social interaction deriving from delayed growth and puberty have been reported in the literature.…”