Moving into middle school: individual differences in the transition experience

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Apr 1998 by McDougall, Patricia, Hymel, Shelley

Next, to explore the concurrent relationships between adjustment factors in grade 7 and perceptions of the transition experience, we conducted a second simultaneous regression analysis again using Overall Transition Experience scores as the criterion measure, with Transition (Time 2: early grade 7) adjustment composites (i.e., Self-Concept, School Attitudes/Behaviours, Social Adjustment, Achievement) and Sex of student as concurrent markers. As illustrated in Table 5, the five variables together accounted for almost one-third of the variance in Overall Transition Experience. However, once the shared variability between grade 7 adjustment indices was removed, only Social Adjustment and Self-Concept at Transition emerged as unique markers of variation in student reports of their Overall Transition Experience. The direction of the regression coefficients suggests that in early grade 7 students who reported more negative reactions to the transition experience (as evidenced by lower Overall Transition Experience scores) also reported less positive social adjustment (e.g., greater loneliness, less integration and intimacy with peers and greater anonymity within the school) and a less positive sense of self (e.g., lower general self-esteem, lower perceptions of math and verbal competence, and lower perceptions of competence in school) relative to those students who responded positively to transition. None of the interactions between sex of student and each of the grade 7 adjustment factors contributed significantly to the prediction of Overall Transition Experience suggesting that the pattern of observed relations was similar for boys and girls.

Post-hoc analysis: The role of social adjustment. Subsequent analyses were conducted in an attempt to understand how Social Adjustment in grade 6 and grade 7 might jointly predict student reports of the Overall Transition Experience. Specifically, we questioned whether Social Adjustment in grade 6 would contribute uniquely to the prediction of Overall Transition Experience, over and above what might be expected by Social Adjustment reported in grade 7. The issue of whether grade 6 Social Adjustment might uniquely predict Overall Transition Experience was addressed using hierarchical multiple regression. With Overall Transition Experience as the criterion measure, we first entered grade 7 (Transition) Social Adjustment, followed by grade 6 (Pre-Transition) Social Adjustment on the second step(f.7). Results of this hierarchical regression indicated that, although grade 7 Social Adjustment accounted for 24% of the variance in Overall Transition Experience (F(1,96) = 30.59, p

DISCUSSION

In general, there appear to be two very different ways of investigating individual variations in students' adjustment to middle school. The traditional approach has been to examine various adjustment outcomes across the transition period, whereas a second approach is to directly examine student perceptions of the transition experience and then identify those individual characteristics which differentiate reported positive versus negative experience with transition. In the present study, we utilized the latter approach and considered the "voice of the consumer" by asking students to reflect on the nature of their transition experience in the early months of middle school. Their responses suggested that, for the majority of students, this transition was neither difficult nor stressful. Indeed, most students reported feeling quite successful and happy in the first month of grade 7.