Education, Engagement, and Well-Being Among Adolescents

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Education policy tends to focus almost exclusively on test scores as a measure of student achievement, but an ever-increasing body of research suggests that non-cognitive skills may be the key to succes in school and beyond. This project, drawing on Gallup survey data and administrative records, explores how students' well-being, school involvement, and optimism about the future are related to academic achievement and civic engagement. In doing so, the study is the first to link together school administrative records and polling data in order to understand how the school context, "non-cognitive" traits, and civic behavior interact. A primary goal of this work is to identify and encourage the policies and practices that promote students' future quality of life and participation in democracy. Although previous research suggests that the school setting plays a large role in development of non-cognitive skills, few studies have been able to test models of the link between school, engagement, and well-being comprehensively, because the data demands have been simply too great. This project solves past methodological challenges by linking extensive information about the school environment, the home environment, individual attitudes and opinions from a sufficiently large number of students across diverse settings. The researchers will use a combination of survey data and administrative records, coupled with a field experiment, to examine how adolescent well-being measures are related to studnet achievement and civic engagement, over and above demographic correlates and how school characteristics and policies are related to hope, engagement, and well-being. The project is an initial studep towards a better understanding of how schools can nurture and facilitate adolescent well-being and engagement. This project will focus attention on an important research problems that can only be addressed by an interdisciplinary team and will have meaningful impact across research disciplines and intellectual boundaries. Also, in a climate that focues on test-based achievement measures, the proposed research will inform education policy-making that balances academic pedagogy with support for noncognitive factors that are important for life success. Ultimately, this research may encourage schools to address well-being, engagement, and hope as part of their standard curriculum. The project will also contribute to the interdisciplinary education of doctoral and undergraduate students, who will be involved in the development, implementation, analysis, and presentation of the research.