I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• Effective schools in a segregated landscape

  2020. Maria Granvik Saminathen (et al.).

  Avhandling (Dok)

  Equitable educational opportunities necessitate equitable access to a favourable academic and social school environment. This thesis aims to explore the role of the school as an educational and social arena for the academic achievement and psychological well-being of lower secondary school students in Sweden. Using survey data, four empirical studies assessed contextual and compositional aspects of schools and their associations with adolescent outcomes.

  Study I examined the relevance of indicators of school effectiveness for student academic achievement. Teachers’ ratings of effectiveness indicators and student-reported marks in core subjects were shown to be lower in more sociodemographically disadvantaged schools compared to schools with a more privileged student body. However, even when adjusting for the school’s student intake and students’ own family backgrounds, students performed better, on average, in schools that were rated as more effective. School ethos was found to partly mediate the relationship between school student composition and academic achievement. Furthermore, analyses indicated that students attending one of the most socially deprived schools performed better when their school was rated as more effective, regardless of their own family backgrounds.

  Study II focused on school ethos, exploring the mediating effect of students’ academic achievement on the levels of internalising and externalising indicators of poor psychological well-being among students. Teacher-rated school ethos was found to be predictive of students’ academic achievement, even when taking the school’s sociodemographic student composition into account. Moreover, students’ levels of psychological distress were shown to be indirectly associated with the school’s ethos, via academic achievement. No such mediating relationship was identified for students’ levels of aggressive behaviour.

  Study III assessed the significance of the sociodemographic school environment for adolescents from socially disadvantaged residential areas in Stockholm. Students who chose to commute to more prestigious schools outside of their residential areas performed better academically compared to their peers who enrolled in one of their neighbourhood schools, an association that was partly mediated by teacher-rated school ethos. However, the commuting students reported lower school satisfaction and more psychological complaints than students who stayed behind, even when taking academic achievement and school ethos into account.

  Study IV investigated the implications of classroom immigrant density for adolescents in Sweden who were foreign-born and/or had parents who were foreign-born. Analyses found that students with an immigration background reported fewer psychological complaints when the proportion of immigrant students in their class was higher, an association that was partly mediated by the experience of classmate acceptance.

  This thesis has illustrated the importance of the functioning of schools for adolescents’ achievement and well-being, in line with school effectiveness theories. However, schools’ capacity to build an effective school context is closely linked with their student intake, undermining the school’s compensatory mission. Furthermore, the sociodemographic composition of schools can be essential for the psychological well-being of certain groups of adolescents, potentially counteracting the social mixing of students.

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• The Role of Academic Achievement in the Relationship between School Ethos and Adolescent Distress and Aggression

  2020. Maria Granvik Saminathen, Stephanie Plenty, Bitte Modin. Journal of Youth and Adolescence

  Artikel

  Equitable access to high-quality schools is important for student achievement. However, the increasing attention placed on adolescent mental health promotion suggests that school contextual factors and school achievement may also play an important role for students’ psychological well-being. This study examined the relationships between school ethos, academic achievement, psychological distress and aggressive behaviour among Swedish students, further considering the role of school sociodemographic composition. Analyses were based on two separate data collections in Stockholm, one among teachers (n = 2089) and the other among students aged 15–16 (n = 9776; 49.7% girls). Using multilevel structural equation modelling, the relations between teachers’ reports of school ethos and students’ reports of achievement, psychological distress and aggressive behaviour were tested. Analyses showed a positive relationship between a school’s ethos and average academic achievement. At the school level, higher academic achievement was in turn associated with less psychological distress among students, providing an indirect pathway between school ethos and psychological distress. At the individual level, students with higher academic achievement reported less psychological distress and aggressive behaviour. These findings indicate that schools’ value-based policies and practices can play a role for students’ academic performance, and through this, for their psychological well-being.

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• School Choice at a Cost? Academic Achievement, School Satisfaction and Psychological Complaints among Students in Disadvantaged Areas of Stockholm

  2019. Maria Granvik Saminathen, Sara B. Låftman, Bitte Modin. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16 (11)

  Artikel

  School choice allows students from more disadvantaged district areas in metropolitan Swedish cities to commute to more prestigious schools outside of their residential area. This study examined how such students fare compared to their peers who attend more deprived schools in their own district area. Multilevel analysis was applied, estimating 2-level random intercept linear regression models based on cross-sectional survey data collected among ninth grade students in 2014 and 2016 (n = 2105). Analyses showed that students living in relatively disadvantaged district areas of Stockholm who chose to attend more prestigious schools outside of their residential area performed better academically compared to students who opted to remain at more deprived schools in their catchment area, an association that was partly mediated by school quality in terms of teacher-rated school ethos. Yet, commuting students reported lower school satisfaction and more psychological complaints than students who stayed behind, even when taking academic achievement and school ethos into account. The association with psychological complaints was partly mediated by school satisfaction. Thus, the academic gain associated with having chosen to commute from a disadvantaged area to a more prestigious school does not appear to translate into higher school satisfaction and better psychological well-being.

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• Effective schools, school segregation, and the link with school achievement

  2018. Maria Granvik Saminathen (et al.). School Effectiveness and School Improvement 29 (3), 464-484

  Artikel

  This study examines whether 3 teacher-rated aspects of school effectiveness differ across school segregation profiles in Stockholm, and to what extent these indicators are associated with the academic achievement of 9th-grade students. Analyses were based on 2 cross-sectional data collections performed in 2014 and 2016, respectively (147 school units), one among teachers (n = 2,024) and the other among 9th-grade students (n = 9,151). Multilevel analysis was applied, estimating 2-level random intercept linear regression models. Results show that teachers’ ratings of school leadership, teacher cooperation, and school ethos, as well as student-reported marks differ across school segregation profiles. Findings further reveal significant associations between these school effectiveness indicators and student performance, even when taking student family background and the school’s student body composition into consideration. In part, these associations are also identified within segregation profiles. Moreover, results show that school ethos acts as a mediator between school segregation profile and student achievement.

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