Yves Prêteur’s research while affiliated with Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès and other places

Online Self-Expression in the Adolescent: Peer Socialization and The Search for Identity Online self-expression is a very popular practice among young adolescents, but one whose effects on the development of the individual have often been questioned. Taking a broad approach, this study aims to understand how practices of online self-expression fit within a horizontal socialization process and how they contribute to the development of identity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with forty-seven teenage girls aged from eleven to fifteen years. A lexicometric analysis with a Hierarchical Descending Classification (Alceste software) shows that online self-expression plays a central role in horizontal socialization, and is far more than a means of social integration. Online self-expression, at first learned from peers, is a practice that contributes to personal development, but one that is also personalized by each teenager. It encourages a capacity for self-reflection in an intersubjective context, and reflects a real desire for social recognition and support.

Perceived social support has been widely recognized as having beneficial effects on a person’s development, and adolescence is no exception. The objective of this article is to go beyond this “stereotypical” vision of friendship by showing that social support does not always have a positive and direct effect on adolescents’ academic achievement. We sought to understand whether this relationship is mediated by the educational goals and motives that student value and pursue. If these values do not coincide with the expectations and values that the academic institution seeks to transmit, the influence of social support can become harmful, especially with regard to the students’ academic achievement. Data were collected by means of questionnaires from 676 junior high school students in 9th grade from contrasting academic institutions. We chose to observe each participant’s subjective point of view of three dimensions: social support, academic achievement, and educational goals and motives. The results showed that the relationship between social support and attention and involvement in class was negative and mediated by students’ goals. The adolescents with a high level of social support mainly pursued social goals and neglected achievement and future goals. Consequently, these students were less attentive and involved in class. The results also showed that social support was predictive of students’ investment and interest in personal work and success, but only when the students pursued achievement and future goals.

The process of dropping out of school is a complex and multidimensional process, which is part of a temporality of academic experience and can eventually lead to dropping out. While many studies have focused on the diversity of manifestations of dropout and types of dropouts, the objective of our study is to analyze how socialization among peers can generate and / or accelerate dropout among adolescents. Indeed, it seems important to include the role of peers about school life because that they have a decisive influence on adolescent’s socialization and on his identity construction. Questionnaires were administered to 676 adolescents, aged 14 to 16 years. Academic engagement and social position (quality of peer’s relationships) were evaluated. Results reveal that students who are able to adjust their mode of relation to peers (“popular”) are more engaged academically. Similarly, adolescents “withdrawn”, independent, autonomous and solitary are also engaged in their schooling. Finally, students too dependent of group and with a representation of friendship based on power relations, conflict or conformity (“neglected” and “scapegoat”) are disengaged. They prefer relational learning to intellectual learning.

L’adolescent se trouve face à une double contrainte : le besoin de conformité extrême au groupe pour se sentir soutenu et reconnu, et la recherche d’indépendance face aux pressions du groupe, pour s’affirmer et s’autonomiser. Confrontés à ce paradoxe, comment les adolescents vont-ils se positionner dans leurs relations aux pairs et dans leur rapport à l’école ? Cette recherche a pour objectif l’étude du lien entre ces deux formes d’affirmation de soi au sein du groupe de pairs et la (dé)mobilisation scolaire. 676 collégiens de 14 à 16 ans ont été interrogés sur leurs relations aux pairs (recherche extrême de conformité ou recherche d’indépendance vis-à-vis du groupe), sur la valeur qu’ils accordent à l’école et sur leur mobilisation scolaire. Les analyses statistiques réalisées montrent que plus la recherche l’indépendance ou de conformité est extrême, plus ces positionnements sont liés à la démobilisation scolaire. Ces derniers privilégient également les apprentissages sociaux et relationnels de l’école aux dépens des apprentissages scolaires et intellectuels, ce qui les éloigne des logiques et attentes institutionnelles. MOTS-CLÉS : ADOLESCENCE, DÉMOBILISATION SCOLAIRE, VALEUR ACCORDÉE À, L’ÉCOLE, CONFORMITÉ EXTRÊME, RECHERCHE D’INDÉPENDANCE

Résumé L’adolescent se trouve face à une double contrainte : le besoin de conformité extrême au groupe pour se sentir soutenu et reconnu, et la recherche d’indépendance face aux pressions du groupe, pour s’affirmer et s’autonomiser. Confrontés à ce paradoxe, comment les adolescents vont-ils se positionner dans leurs relations aux pairs et dans leur rapport à l’école ? Cette recherche a pour objectif l’étude du lien entre ces deux formes d’affirmation de soi au sein du groupe de pairs et la (dé)mobilisation scolaire. 676 collégiens de 14 à 16 ans ont été interrogés sur leurs relations aux pairs (recherche extrême de conformité ou recherche d’indépendance vis-à-vis du groupe), sur la valeur qu’ils accordent à l’école et sur leur mobilisation scolaire. Les analyses statistiques réalisées montrent que plus la recherche d’indépendance ou de conformité est extrême, plus ces positionnements sont liés à la démobilisation scolaire. Ces derniers privilégient également les apprentissages sociaux et relationnels de l’école aux dépens des apprentissages scolaires et intellectuels, ce qui les éloigne des logiques et attentes institutionnelles.

In France, V-level vocational secondary school students and apprentices who quit their training programmes and fail to achieve their diplomas make up 60% of all dropouts from the educational system. This longitudinal research study of 611 participants showed that the origins of these two phenomena reveal strikingly different dynamics within and between these two training systems. While the future of the secondary school students appeared correlated with the relationship to knowledge which they developed along their previous academic path, the apprentices’ breach of contract and failure to achieve their diploma could not be so easily explained by any specific relationship to knowledge or sense of academic experience.