Microsystem and intrapersonal variables associated with middle school achievement: The important role of engagement

Abstract

Through an ecological theory lens, the purpose of the current study was to examine variables that most strongly influence middle school academic achievement among a sample of 240 sixth-eighth graders in the Midwest. The purpose was to explore whether student academic organizational practices uniquely predicted middle school achievement, and whether intrapersonal variables (engagement, metacognition, and student organization/academic practices) moderated relationships between contextual factors (parent, teacher, and peer support) and achievement. The combination of contextual and intrapersonal variables accounted for variance in achievement. Engagement was the intrapersonal factor that consistently contributed to the models. Metacognition moderated peer support and academic achievement. When school engagement becomes a primary focus, versus only attempting to remediate metacognitive and organizational deficits, this can pave a more accessible path for both educators and parents to teach other skills that are essential to educational attainment and occupational success. Implications for interventions targeting student participation, attention, and effort are discussed.

Keywords:

• Achievement
• engagement
• middle school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Porcaro

Jennifer Porcaro is a school psychologist in the Dexter Community Schools in Michigan. Her research interests include improving middle school adolescents’ executive functioning and organizational systems to ultimately improve social and school success, as well as studying factors that best predict student engagement in school.

Cheryl L. Somers

Cheryl L. Somers is a Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Her current research interests include adolescent academic achievement, ecological predictors of school success, trauma informed education, and physical activity and mental health interventions for K-12 youth, as well as community-based interventions geared toward community and population health.

Besa Karanfili

Besa Karanfili is a school psychologist and counseling psychology currently working in private practice psychotherapy in the Detroit area. Her research interests include parenting styles and the roles of parents in academic achievement and psychosocial adjustment. She is also interested in mindfulness, nutrition and healthy eating, and early intervention with youth.

Robert Ty Partridge

Robert “Ty” Partridge is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His research interests include the influence of urban poverty on early childhood development, adolescent risk behaviors, developmental psychobiology, emotion regulation, early childhood literacy, longitudinal methods, complex adaptive systems and relational developmental systems theory.