2024/06/18 by Beatrice Bobba, Takuya Yanagida, Maria Wiertsema +4 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Parental Involvement in Education #Early Childhood Education and Development #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
paper · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12504
openalex publication_date 2024/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract Sense of academic futility entails feelings of having no control over ones' educational success. Although mounting evidence points to its negative consequences for students' educational outcomes, less is known about its socio‐contextual antecedents. Relatedly, the current study explored how fair and supportive relationships with teachers are related to the sense of academic futility and if class belonging mediates this link in a sample of adolescents with immigrant and non‐immigrant backgrounds. A total of 1065 seventh‐grade students ( M age = 13.12; SD = 0.42; 45% girls) from 55 classrooms completed questionnaires at two time points 1 year apart. Results of multilevel analyses indicated that fair and supportive relationships with teachers contributed to decreases in sense of academic futility at the individual but not at the classroom level. No mediation or moderation effects emerged. These findings highlight the crucial role of democratic student–teacher relationships in supporting the positive school adjustment of all students in increasingly multicultural societies.