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Dropping Out Of School: Risk and Protective Factors
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Preventing school dropout and promoting successful graduation is a national concern in Bulgaria that poses a significant challenge to schools and educational communities working with youth at risk of school failure. Few studies have examined predictors of dropping out of school before students reach high school and their data have been analysed. Research shows dropping out is strongly tied to family psychopathology, individual characteristics and childhood development disorders. Finally, yet importantly, there are some socioeconomic and cultural factors associated with dropping out of school. A multifactor approach is needed in order to understand the risk factors for school dropout. Identifying the predictors of school failure is crucial for understanding the causes and processes of dropping out, which, in turn, can help guide the creation of effective programs for the prevention of this problem. Implications for prevention of early high school dropout are discussed. The authors place an emphasis on applying a trans-cultural approach to maximize the potential benefit of dropout prevention programs.
Key words: Family psychopathology, socioeconomic and cultural factors
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Social risk is an interdisciplinary concept used with various meanings in the social and in the natural sciences. The article presents some of the social insights into this concept, particularly in connection with the global environmental research project and with geography. The special dimension of social risks, as well as some current methodological aspects regarding models and the main indicators used in the multidimensional assessment of social risks are analysed at local, regional and national levels. Of special interest is the link between social risks and a series of key-concepts, such as: hazard, impact, social vulnerability, resilience, adaptive capacity.
Good education predicts good health, and disparities in health and in educational achievement are closely linked. Despite these connections, public health professionals rarely make reducing the number of students who drop out of school a priority, although nearly one-third of all students in the United States and half of black, Latino, and American Indian students do not graduate from high school on time. In this article, we summarize knowledge on the health benefits of high school graduation and discuss the pathways by which graduating from high school contributes to good health. We examine strategies for reducing school dropout rates with a focus on interventions that improve school completion rates by improving students' health. Finally, we recommend actions health professionals can take to reframe the school dropout rate as a public health issue and to improve school completion rates in the United States.
This study analyzes the correlation of the risk of dropping out in high school with parenting style and parental involvement in schooling. The study sample comprised 810 adolescents (12-13 years old). The risk of dropping out was assessed using the questionnaire Décisions (P. Quirouette, 1988). Parenting style and parental involvement in schooling were evaluated using questionnaires developped by L. Steinberg, S. D. Lamborn, S. M. Dornbusch, and N. Darling (1992) and by J. L. Epstein, L. J. Connors, and K.C. Salinas (1993), translated and validated in Québec by R. Deslandes (1996). Multiple-regression analyses identified two dimensions of parenting style and two dimensions of parental involvement in schooling that together explained 23% of the variance in the risk of dropping out. In order of importance, the most significant dimensions are parental affective support, warmth, supervision, and communication with teachers.
This article provides an integrative review of prevention and intervention studies addressing dropout or school completion described in professional journals. Forty-five intervention studies were coded according to research design, participants, interventions, and outcomes to describe the range of data-based programs and approaches available in the literature. In addition, effect sizes were calculated for dependent variables in 17 studies. The extent to which intervention studies reflect current conceptualizations of dropout are examined, and the degree to which the studies incorporate sound methodology is critically analyzed. The article concludes with recommendations for advancing intervention and prevention research to promote school completion. Implications for school psychologists, and related professionals and disciplines, to shift from a focus on dropout towards promoting school completion are explicated.
This study compared the adequacy of 5 theories to predict dropping out of high school before the 10th grade. These theories include full mediation by academic achievement and direct effects related to general deviance, deviant affiliation, family socialization, and structural strains. Nested latent variable models were used to test these theories on prospective data from an ethnically diverse urban sample. Poor academic achievement mediated the effect of all independent factors on school dropout, although general deviance, bonding to antisocial peers, and socioeconomic status also retained direct effects on dropping out. Therefore, none of the theories tested was fully adequate to explain the data, although partial support was obtained for each theory. Implications for prevention of early high school dropout are discussed.
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Using the concepts of cultural and social capital, I provide a theoretical framework for why there should be differential effects of parental involvement across cognitive (e.g., science achievement) and behavioral (e.g., truancy and dropping out) outcomes. Findings indicate that parental involvement is generally a salient factor in explaining behavioral but not cognitive outcomes, with greatest support for parent-child discussion and involvement in parent-teacher organizations. Findings also indicate that specific dimensions of involvement have greater effects for more affluent and white students, providing empirical evidence to support Lareau's (1989) contention that the greater levels of cultural capital possessed by members of the upper class magnify parental involvement's effect for advantaged students. The theoretical framework and associated findings provide insight into the seemingly inconsistent findings revealed in much previous research on parent involvement and achievement.
Schools and communities may have a key role in reversing the cycle of inequality that the Roma suffer in Europe. Aiming at reducing existing inequalities, dialogic learning aims to ensure high levels of academic learning for all children, by involving the whole community through egalitarian dialogue. Less well known are the implications of this approach for the Roma in highly marginalised areas. This article presents the results of a longitudinal case study in a Spanish primary school, undertaken as part of the European Union-funded INCLUD-ED Integrated Project. It reports on educational actions grounded in dialogic learning, which have succeeded in engaging families and communities in the school, the classroom and other learning spaces. Based on a dialogic school-based transformation, Roma families participated in children’s learning activities and decision-making spaces. We explore how these actions involving Roma families are developed and the effect they may have in improving learning and engagement.