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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Grade retention is a common practice applied to academically struggling students within
the Portuguese context. Studies investigating the psychological experiences of grade-retained students are still scarce. In addition, most studies tend to neglect the multilevel nature of the school
context. This study examines the effects of grade retention in grades 1–9 on Portuguese students’
psychosocial outcomes by the age of 15, using PISA 2018 data. Using a quasi-experimental design
through full matching, we reduced the bias between 1362 retained and 4189 promoted students in
relevant background variables. Results from the multilevel models showed that retained students, by
the age of 15, present lower task orientation and school belonging. In addition, we found that the
high retention rates negatively relate to students’ reading self-concept, task orientation, and school
valuing and that school retention rates moderate the relationship between students’ retention and
the psychosocial variables considered. Overall, these findings suggest detrimental effects of grade
retention and that grade retention also affects the promoted peers of retained students.
Description
Keywords
Grade retention Psychosocial outcomes School retention composition quasi-experimental methods Multilevel modelling PISA
Citation
10.3390/su142416573
Publisher
MDPI Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute