E R A N M E L K M A N , R A M I B E N B E N I S H T Y ,

A N A T Z E I R A , T E H I L A R E F A E L I

H A I F A U N I V E R S I T Y , B A R I L A N U N I V E R S I T Y

& T H E H E B R E W U N I V E R S I T Y O F J E R U S A L E M

AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF A MODEL OF ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

AMONG YOUTH IN RESIDENTIAL CARE

Funded by The Jacobs Foundation

BACKGROUND

Care leavers - of the most socially excluded groups

in society (Stein, 2006)

Education - key for social mobility and breaking ‘the

cycle of poverty’

A very small proportion of care leavers enroll in

higher education

• The Result:

• Care leavers’ earnings and integration into society

are impeded

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

Marker for educational and occupational

attainment in adulthood (Ashby & Schoon, 2012; Beal & Crockett, 2010)

Aspiring youth have higher chances of:

• Enrolling in college

• Earning a degree

• Getting a high status job (Dubow et al., 2009)

Models of academic expectations among at-risk

youth are used to guide interventions (Byun et al. 2012; DeCivita, Pagani, Vitaro, & Tremblay, 2004)

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

RESEARCH GOAL

To develop and test a model in order to

predict the academic expectations of

Israeli adolescents placed in residential

youth villages

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

ACADEMIC ASPIRATIONS: DEVELOPING A MODEL

Status attainment models (Ashby & Schoon, 2010; Sewell et al.,

1970)

The social mobility patterns of individuals

Contribution of:

• Parents’ SES

• Academic achievement

• Encouragement from significant others (parents,

teachers)

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

ISRAELI YOUTH VILLAGES

The most common form of out-of-home

placement in Israel

Children of families from the geographic or social

periphery of Israel (e.g., immigrants)

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

ISRAELI YOUTH VILLAGES

Large facilities with a school on premise

Two sets of significant adults:

o Teachers

o Staff

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

MODEL OF ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUTH IN RESIDENTIAL CARE

Achievements

Parents’ Aspirations

Staff Support

Teacher Support

Youths’ Expectations

Parents’ Education

Immigrant

METHOD

• Sample: 1,360 adolescents from 34 youth villages

Attempt to survey all relevant youth (31% response

rate)

Mean age=17.7; 40% girls

67% of immigrant origin(they or their parents)

Mean length of stay in facility=3.14 years

• Procedure: Structured self-report questionnaires

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

TESTING THE MODEL

STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING

SEM with the Mplus 7.11 program (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012)

Confirmatory factor analysis: χ2(95, N = 1360) =

479.89, p < .001, TLI = . 94 , CFI = .96, SRMR = .036,

RMSEA = .055

Structural model: goodness of fit: χ2(182, N =

1360) = 508.57, p < .0001, TLI = .94, CFI = .95 , SRMR

= .031, RMSEA = .036.

Accounting for clustered nature of sample

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

Parents’ Aspirations

Achievements Youths’

Expectations

Teacher Support

Staff Support

.11

-.09

.26

.38

.42

Parents’ Education

Mother: Edu1

Mother: Edu2

Father: Edu1

Father: Edu2

-.09

-.11

-.10 -.08 -.08

.08

-.09

Omitted from the figure are some correlations between exogenous variables

-.08

Structural Equation Modeling of Academic Expectations among Youth in Residential Care

statistically significant paths ( p < .05)

Immigrant

FAMILY

Family matters! Even when growing up away from home

Intergenerational continuity of academic achievements

and expectations(Lee, Hill, & Hawkins, 2012)

Less educated parents

Lower parental aspirations Lower youth achievements

Lower youth academic expectations

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

YOUTH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Salient predictor of expectations (Tynkkynen, Tolvanen, &

Salmela-Aro, 2012)

Component of academic self-schema (Garg et al., 2007)

Low achievements of youth in care (Berridge, 2012)

?

Lower post-secondary expectations (Kirk et al., 2012)

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

YOUTH VILLAGES’ SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT TEACHERS

Promoting equality of educational opportunity

(Coleman, 1966)

More prominent in the lives of youth in care?

Neglected role of “gate keepers” to higher

education?

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

YOUTH VILLAGES’ SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

RESIDENTIAL FACILITY’S STAFF

Staff support:

• Compensates for lack of educational

resources

• Buffers negative impact of low achievements

Care leavers - on slow track to education (Courtney et al., 2011)

The importance of expectations, even if

fulfilled at a later stage

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

IMMIGRANT STATUS

Immigrant over-representation in residential care (Kalve & Dyrhaug, 2011)

Professional-client cultural discrepancies (Kromhaut,

Elderling & Knorth, 2000)

• Immigrant youth

• Lower levels of teacher/staff support

• Lower academic expectations

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Low response rate limits generalizability

Teacher’s role in settings with off-campus schools?

Cross sectional design, unanswered questions of:

• causality (e.g., achievements- expectations)

• change over time of expectations(post-care)

• associations with future educational attainment

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Integrative approach encompassing multiple adult

functions in care (teachers, staff, parents)

Experiences of success in school- that’s where

academic expectations begin

Greater attention to the complex needs of immigrant

youth

EUSARF, Oviedo 2016

FOR MORE INFORM AT I ON

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ERANMELKMAN@GMAIL .COM O R

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