Moving into middle school: individual differences in the transition experience

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

Utilizing a short-term longitudinal design (late grade 6, early grade 7) we were able to collect the same adjustment information (i.e., self-concept, academic achievement, school attitudes and behaviour and social functioning) from students both prior to the transition and during the early months of grade 7 (the transition period). The adjustment measures (predictors) considered in the present study reflect academic and social indices that have often been included as adjustment outcomes in previous research, with researchers looking for changes in these variables across the transition period. In the present research, we essentially turned this strategy around, obtaining student reports of the transition experience and examining which of the adjustment indices are predictive of a reported stressful or difficult transition. Although some may suggest that student's perceptions of the stress or difficulty associated with the transition may themselves be measures of adjustment, we contend that they are conceptually different from traditional adjustment or outcome measures utilized in transition research. Specifically, asking students about the their feelings regarding the change to a new school and the first month of grade 7 focusses directly on the experience of having to make an academic transition. In contrast, traditional adjustment outcomes such as achievement, social functioning, self-concept, school attitudes and behaviours (included here) represent self-perceptions that are more general in nature and may reflect adjustment in a variety of domains.

Of primary concern was whether particular individual characteristics place students at greater risk for a stressful transition experience. Stated differently, we questioned whether students' level of adjustment as measured by achievement, social functioning, self-concept and school attitudes and behaviour would be predictive of variability in reports of the stress or difficulty experienced in the move to middle school. Given previous evidence that adjustment during transition may differ for boys and girls (e.g., Fenzel & Blyth, 1986; Lord et at., 1994; Simmons & Blyth, 1987; Simmons, CarltonFord & Blyth, 1987), we also considered whether reports of the transition experience varied as a function of the sex of the student and whether the pattern of relationships between adjustment factors and transition experience were different for girls and boys.

METHOD

Participants

Participants included 160 grade 7 students (75 girls, 85 boys) entering a single middle school from six different elementary "feeder" schools in a Southwestern Ontario community. These students were predominantly middle class, with English as a first language. Upon entering the middle school, students from different "feeder" schools were mixed together to compose six new grade 7 classrooms who then moved as a group across a range of different teachers. That is, although each academic subject area was taught by a different teacher, classroom composition remained intact.