Boon, Helen Joanna (2010) Coping with school moves. In: Proceedings of 2009 Australian Association for Research in Education International Education Research Conference. pp. 1-12. From: 2009 Australian Association for Research in Education International Education Research Conference, 29 November - 3 December 2009, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

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Abstract

School mobility is widely held to be disruptive to students' education either directly, by disrupting curriculum continuity or indirectly through social stress and engagement issues affecting the student. Paradoxically, mobility has not been consistently linked to poorer academic outcomes; where mobility was linked with lower academic achievement, behaviour problems and/or inadequate adjustment issues were also found. Adjustment problems implicate student coping strategies. There is a gap in the mobility literature in relation to coping strategies. This study tests the hypothesis that when particular academic coping strategies are employed by mobile students academic achievement is supported and behavioural problems are avoided. A sample of over one thousand secondary students was employed to gather measures of mobility, academic achievement, suspensions and coping strategies in the pursuit of the following questions: 1. Is mobility linked to lower achievement in Australian students? 2. Is mobility linked to suspensions in Australian students? 3. Are coping strategies employed by mobile students whose academic achievement is satisfactory or better different from those employed by mobile students who are failing? 4. Are coping strategies employed by mobile students who are suspended different from those employed by mobile students who are never suspended? Supporting prior findings the mobile students of this study achieved at lower levels and had more suspensions than the non-mobile students. Results indicate that positive coping strategies play an important role in the achievement profile of mobile students. Adaptive coping was linked to higher academic achievement while the converse was found for non-productive coping strategies in mobile students. Possible explanations for prior inconsistent findings are suggested. Children of mobile middle and high SES families and those whose moves are necessitated by parental employment such as military families, rarely report negative effects. In addition, pre-existing differences have been found to account for achievement differences between mobile and other students in longitudinal studies. Results here suggest that it is not only mobility per se that determines children's outcomes but rather the reasons for moving and the family's attitude to moving. Adolescent's coping repertoires have been found to be largely developed over time in concert with their family's reactions to the range of circumstances they face. They result from socialising influences found within the family. Strategies modelled at home might be the ones the child/adolescent learns to use to manage stress. This could explain why children of some highly mobile families rarely report adverse academic achievement outcomes.

Item ID:	9350
Item Type:	Conference Item (Research - E1)
ISSN:	1324-9320
Keywords:	school achievement; suspensions; coping; school mobility; adolescents; secondary education
Additional Information:	Conference theme "Inspiring innovative research in education"
Date Deposited:	24 Aug 2010 01:30
FoR Codes:	13 EDUCATION > 1301 Education Systems > 130106 Secondary Education @ 40% 17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170103 Educational Psychology @ 60%
SEO Codes:	93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9301 Learner and Learning > 930101 Learner and Learning Achievement @ 45% 93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9301 Learner and Learning > 930103 Learner Development @ 45% 93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9305 Education and Training Systems > 930501 Education and Training Systems Policies and Development @ 10%
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