@article{WestphalVockKretschmann2021, author = {Westphal, Andrea and Vock, Miriam and Kretschmann, Julia}, title = {Unravelling the relationship between teacher-assigned grades, student personality, and standardized test scores}, series = {Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation}, number = {12}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627440}, pages = {11}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The Big Five personality traits play a major role in student achievement. As such, there is consistent evidence that students that are more conscientious receive better teacher-assigned grades in secondary school. However, research often does not support the claim that students that are more conscientious similarly achieve higher scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests. Based on the Invest-and-Accrue Model, we argue that conscientiousness explains to some extent why certain students receive better grades despite similar academic accomplishments (i.e., achieving similar scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests). Therefore, the present study examines to what extent the relationship between student personality and teacher-assigned grades consists of direct as opposed to indirect associations (via subject-specific standardized test scores). We used a representative sample of 14,710 ninth-grade students to estimate these direct and indirect pathways in mathematics and German. Structural equation models showed that test scores explained between 8 and 11\% of the variance in teacher-assigned grades in mathematics and German. The Big Five personality traits in students additionally explained between 8 and 10\% of the variance in grades. Finally, the personality-grade relationship consisted of direct (0.02 | β| ≤ 0.27) and indirect associations via test scores (0.01 | β| ≤ 0.07). Conscientiousness explained discrepancies between teacher-assigned grades and students' scores in domain-specific standardized tests to a greater extent than any of the other Big Five personality traits. Our findings suggest that students that are more conscientious may invest more effort to accomplish classroom goals, but fall short of mastery.}, language = {en} } @article{KretschmannVockLuedtkeetal.2016, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Vock, Miriam and Luedtke, Oliver and Gronostaj, Anna}, title = {psychosocial development after early acceleration}, series = {Contemporary educational psychology}, volume = {46}, journal = {Contemporary educational psychology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {San Diego}, issn = {0361-476X}, doi = {10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.06.001}, pages = {195 -- 207}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Whereas studies that have analyzed factors that affect academic achievement have predominantly revealed positive effects of skipping a grade, controversial results have been found for students' social-emotional and motivational development. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of skipping a whole grade on students' school satisfaction, peer relations, school anxiety, and academic self-concept. Moreover, we conducted moderation analyses to investigate whether skipping a grade affects boys and girls differently. Data were obtained from N = 4926 German students who were repeatedly surveyed once a year in Grades 4, 5, and 6. A total of N = 96 students from this sample had skipped a grade in elementary school. We applied full matching separately for male and female students in order to minimize selection bias. When analyzing motivational variables, we added class-mean achievement scores as covariates within the matching process. Equally for boys and girls, the results showed no significant effect of skipping on school satisfaction, yet we found a negative effect on peer relations that persisted across the 3 years of measurement. However, after skipping a grade girls were significantly disadvantaged compared to boys on some motivational dimensions.}, language = {en} } @article{WestphalKretschmannGronostajetal.2018, author = {Westphal, Andrea and Kretschmann, Julia and Gronostaj, Anna and Vock, Miriam}, title = {More enjoyment, less anxiety and boredom}, series = {Learning and individual differences : a multidisciplinary journal in education}, volume = {62}, journal = {Learning and individual differences : a multidisciplinary journal in education}, publisher = {Elsevier B.V.}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {1041-6080}, doi = {10.1016/j.lindif.2018.01.016}, pages = {108 -- 117}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Students' achievement emotions are critical in their academic development. Therefore, teachers need to create an emotionally positive learning environment. In the light of this, the present study investigated the connection between students' enjoyment, anxiety, boredom and, in the first case, students' academic self-concept and, in the second, teachers' diagnostic skills. The third part of our study examined whether this link would be moderated by students' academic self-concept. Our sample comprised N = 1803 eighth-grade students who reported their achievement emotions and evaluated the diagnostic skills of both their German and mathematics teachers. Hierarchical models indicated that students experience more enjoyment and less anxiety and boredom if teachers exhibit better diagnostic skills. The role of teachers' diagnostic skills in relation to students' emotions was in part moderated by the students' self-concept. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for effective teaching.}, language = {en} } @article{BrunnerKellerStallaschetal.2022, author = {Brunner, Martin and Keller, Lena and Stallasch, Sophie E. and Kretschmann, Julia and Hasl, Andrea and Preckel, Franzis and Luedtke, Oliver and Hedges, Larry}, title = {Meta-analyzing individual participant data from studies with complex survey designs}, series = {Research synthesis methods}, volume = {14}, journal = {Research synthesis methods}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1759-2879}, doi = {10.1002/jrsm.1584}, pages = {5 -- 35}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Descriptive analyses of socially important or theoretically interesting phenomena and trends are a vital component of research in the behavioral, social, economic, and health sciences. Such analyses yield reliable results when using representative individual participant data (IPD) from studies with complex survey designs, including educational large-scale assessments (ELSAs) or social, health, and economic survey and panel studies. The meta-analytic integration of these results offers unique and novel research opportunities to provide strong empirical evidence of the consistency and generalizability of important phenomena and trends. Using ELSAs as an example, this tutorial offers methodological guidance on how to use the two-stage approach to IPD meta-analysis to account for the statistical challenges of complex survey designs (e.g., sampling weights, clustered and missing IPD), first, to conduct descriptive analyses (Stage 1), and second, to integrate results with three-level meta-analytic and meta-regression models to take into account dependencies among effect sizes (Stage 2). The two-stage approach is illustrated with IPD on reading achievement from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We demonstrate how to analyze and integrate standardized mean differences (e.g., gender differences), correlations (e.g., with students' socioeconomic status [SES]), and interactions between individual characteristics at the participant level (e.g., the interaction between gender and SES) across several PISA cycles. All the datafiles and R scripts we used are available online. Because complex social, health, or economic survey and panel studies share many methodological features with ELSAs, the guidance offered in this tutorial is also helpful for synthesizing research evidence from these studies.}, language = {en} } @article{HaslKretschmannRichteretal.2019, author = {Hasl, Andrea and Kretschmann, Julia and Richter, Dirk and Voelkle, Manuel and Brunner, Martin}, title = {Investigating Core Assumptions of the "American Dream": Historical Related to Key Life Outcomes in Adulthood}, series = {Psychology and aging}, volume = {34}, journal = {Psychology and aging}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0882-7974}, doi = {10.1037/pag0000392}, pages = {1055 -- 1076}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The present study examines how historical changes in the U.S. socioeconomic environment in the 20th century may have affected core assumptions of the "American Dream." Specifically, the authors examined whether such changes modulated the extent to which adolescents' intelligence (IQ), their grade point average (GPA), and their parents' socioeconomic status (SES) could predict key life outcomes in adulthood about 20 years later. The data stemmed from two representative U.S. birth cohorts of 15- and 16-year-olds who were born in the early 1960s (N = 3,040) and 1980s (N = 3,524) and who participated in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY). Cohort differences were analyzed with respect to differences in average relations by means of multiple and logistic regression and for specific points in each outcome distribution by means of quantile regressions. In both cohorts, IQ, GPA, and parental SES predicted important educational, occupational, and health-related life-outcomes about 20 years later. Across historical time, the predictive utility of adolescent IQ and parental SES remained stable for the most part. Yet, the combined effects of social-ecological and socioeconomic changes may have increased the predictive utility (that is, the regression weights) of adolescent GPA for educational, occupational, and health outcomes over time for individuals who were born in the 1980s. Theoretical implications concerning adult development, aging, and late life inequality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record.}, language = {en} } @article{KretschmannVockLuedtkeetal.2019, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Vock, Miriam and L{\"u}dtke, Oliver and Jansen, Malte and Gronostaj, Anna}, title = {Effects of grade retention on students' motivation: A longitudinal study over 3 years of secondary school}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {111}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/edu0000353}, pages = {1432 -- 1446}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Despite the fact that grade retention is now seen as controversial in many quarters, it remains common practice in numerous countries. Previous research on the effects of grade retention on student development has, however, generated ambiguous results, particularly in terms of motivational outcomes. This ambiguity has been attributed in part to a lack of high-quality studies including a longitudinal design, a suitable comparison group, and adequate statistical control of preretention differences. Based on longitudinal data of N = 3,288 German students over 3 years of secondary school, we examined differences in their academic self-concept, scholarly interests, learning motivation, and achievement motivation between those being retained in the 6th grade (n = 61) and those of the same age being promoted annually. To account for confounding variables, we applied full propensity score matching on baseline measures of the dependent variables, as well as various other covariates that have been found to be associated with the risk of retention (e.g., cognitive ability, academic performance, and family background variables). Results reveal a steep decline in students' academic self-concept, interests, and learning motivation during the last months spent in the original class, just before retention. For those measures that were available, negative effects were still partly significant after 1 year, but had diminished 2 years after grade retention. Contrary to predictions suggested by the big-fish-little-pond effect, we found no positive effects of retention on students' academic self-concept.}, language = {en} } @article{KretschmannWestphalVock2021, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Westphal, Andrea and Vock, Miriam}, title = {Does it pay to be one of the oldest in class?}, series = {Learning and instruction : the journal of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction}, volume = {74}, journal = {Learning and instruction : the journal of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0959-4752}, doi = {10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101463}, pages = {12}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Several studies have revealed that older students in a year group reach higher achievement scores than younger students in that group. But less is known about how students' relative age in class relates to their self-perception of academic achievement, their social acceptance in class and to how teachers judge their abilities. Therefore, we examined relative age effects within class on students' academic self-concept, peer relations, grades, and teachers' secondary school recommendation. Analyses were based on a sample of N = 18,956 German fourth graders, who had never been retained or accelerated. We applied multilevel regression to control for covariates at the individual and classroom level. There were no substantial relative age effects within class across any of the outcomes, except for a small advantage for the youngest in their reading self-concept. Our findings therefore contradict the common assumption that younger students in class are disadvantaged compared to their older classmates.}, language = {en} } @article{KretschmannVockLuedtke2014, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Vock, Miriam and Luedtke, Oliver}, title = {Acceleration in elementary school: using propensity score matching to estimate the effects on academic achievement}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {106}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/a0036631}, pages = {1080 -- 1095}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Using German data, we examined the effects of one specific type of acceleration-grade skipping-on academic performance. Prior research on the effects of acceleration has suffered from methodological restrictions, especially due to a lack of appropriate comparison groups and a priori measurements. For this reason, propensity score matching was applied in this analysis to minimize selection bias due to observed confounding variables. Various types of matching were attempted, and, in consideration of balancing the covariates, full matching was the final choice. We used data from the Berlin ELEMENT Study, analyzing, after matching, the information of 81 students who had skipped a grade over the course of elementary school and up to 1,668 nonaccelerated students who attended the same grade level as the accelerated students. Measurements took place 3 times between the 4th and 6th grades, including the assessment of reading, spelling, and mathematics performance. After matching, the results of between-group comparisons regarding performance indices showed no significant effects of skipping a grade, other than a small positive effect found on spelling performance. Theoretical implications and methodological limitations are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{HaslVoelkleKretschmannetal.2022, author = {Hasl, Andrea and Voelkle, Manuel and Kretschmann, Julia and Richter, Dirk and Brunner, Martin}, title = {A dynamic structural equation approach to modeling wage dynamics and cumulative advantage across the lifespan}, series = {Multivariate Behavioral Research}, volume = {58}, journal = {Multivariate Behavioral Research}, number = {3}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {0027-3171}, doi = {10.1080/00273171.2022.2029339}, pages = {504 -- 525}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Wages and wage dynamics directly affect individuals' and families' daily lives. In this article, we show how major theoretical branches of research on wages and inequality-that is, cumulative advantage (CA), human capital theory, and the lifespan perspective-can be integrated into a coherent statistical framework and analyzed with multilevel dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM). This opens up a new way to empirically investigate the mechanisms that drive growing inequality over time. We demonstrate the new approach by making use of longitudinal, representative U.S. data (NLSY-79). Analyses revealed fundamental between-person differences in both initial wages and autoregressive wage growth rates across the lifespan. Only 0.5\% of the sample experienced a "strict" CA and unbounded wage growth, whereas most individuals revealed logarithmic wage growth over time. Adolescent intelligence and adult educational levels explained substantial heterogeneity in both parameters. We discuss how DSEM may help researchers study CA processes and related developmental dynamics, and we highlight the extensions and limitations of the DSEM framework.}, language = {en} }