Understanding the connection between youths’ belonging, resilience and self-regulatory learning

Abstract

The Aim(s)Researchers have given little attention to the environmental and internal psychological processes that may influence self-regulated learning (SRL) self-efficacy. Yet, we know that social and emotional factors like belongingness significantly impact youths outcomes and that SRL self-efficacy is linked to academic success for youths. The goal of the current study is to examine two such processes, belonging and resilience, and how they relate to SRL self-efficacy.Method/RationaleThe sample included 361 youths in a large urban school district in the Midwestern United States. These students ranged in age from 9 to 14. The researchers utilised a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to gain insight and understanding into the relationships between SRL self-efficacy, belonging, resilience, and academic self-efficacy.FindingsThe researchers found a model with strong fit indices indicating an explanatory model that explained a significant portion of the variance in SRL.LimitationsThe largest limitation of the current study was the cross sectional data collection examining relationships, not causation. Thus, future work could look at longitudinal data sets to confirm the current results.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that belonging and resiliency specifically play a large role in understanding student self-regulatory learning self-efficacy. This finding suggests that interventions are needed to increase student belonging and internal resiliency in school. It’s possible that interventions targeting these constructs could lead to higher confidence in learning for students.