The role of social support in school adjustment during secondary education

Abstract

[EN] Background: During secondary education, a stage with a high risk of failure and school dropout, social support is an important contextual variable for the prevention of school maladjustment. The aim of this study is to examine a theoretical model of the explanatory capacity of social support in terms of school adjustment, understood as school engagement and perceived academic performance. Method: Participants were 1,468 students (51% girls; 49% boys) from the Basque Country, aged between 12 and 17 (M=14.03, SD=1.36). The study had an ex post facto cross-sectional design. The measurement instruments used were: TCMS –teacher support subscale, AFA-R –family support and peer support subscales, SEM –School Engagement Measure, and EBAE-10 - perceived academic performance subscale. Various different structural models were tested. Results: The fi rst-choice model was one in which social support predicts school engagement with perceived academic performance as a mediating variable: together, both variables predict 73% of school engagement. The strongest effect was that of teacher support, followed by family support, whereas friends were not found to have any direct effect on school adjustment variables. Conclusions: Teachers and families should strive to offer social support to students as a means of strengthening perceived academic self-effi cacy and school engagement.

[ES] Antecedentes: durante la Educación Secundaria, etapa con riesgo de fracaso y abandono escolar, el apoyo social representa una variable contextual relevante para prevenir el desajuste escolar. El objetivo de este trabajo es examinar un modelo teórico sobre la capacidad explicativa del apoyo social sobre el ajuste escolar –implicación escolar y rendimiento académico percibido–. Método: participan 1.468 estudiantes (51% chicas; 49% chicos) con edades entre 12 y 17 años (M=14.03; DT=1.36) del País Vasco. Es un estudio con diseño ex post facto transversal. Las medidas empleadas son: TCMS –subescala apoyo profesorado–, AFA-R –subescalas apoyo familiar y apoyo amistades–, SEM –escala implicación escolar– y EBAE-10 –subescala rendimiento académico percibido–. Se comprueban varios modelos estructurales. Resultados: el modelo de primera elección es el de predicción del apoyo social sobre la implicación escolar con el rendimiento académico percibido como variable mediadora: predicen conjuntamente un 73% de la implicación y prevalece el efecto del apoyo del profesorado, seguido del apoyo familiar, frente a la ausencia de efecto directo de amistades sobre las variables de ajuste escolar. Conclusiones: el profesorado y la familia deben ofrecer apoyo social al alumnado para reforzar la percepción de autoefi cacia académica y la implicación escolar.