Social Support, Childhood Adversities, and Academic Outcomes: A Latent Class Analysis

Citation

Pan, Jingtong; Zaff, Jonathan F.; & Porche, Michelle (2019). Social Support, Childhood Adversities, and Academic Outcomes: A Latent Class Analysis. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR). pp. 1-21

Abstract

Abstract- Childhood adversities tend to impact development in a cumulative way. However, extant research on childhood adversities has focused on a variable-centered approach to examine the cumulative effect of adversity. Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and adopting a pattern-centered approach, the authors investigate how different youth may experience different configurations of adversities among a nationally representative sample (N?=?14,823, mean age?=?21.96, SD?=?1.78) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In addition, they examine how different configurations of adversities are related to different subsequent educational outcomes and how social support from a non-familial adult is associated with these outcomes in different configurations of adversities. They find six unique configurations of childhood adversities. They also find that in addition to the global, cumulative effect of adversity, some configurations of adversity may have a more detrimental risk than others regardless of the sum of experiences. Finally, they reported that having a supportive adult outside of the family is related to better educational outcomes in some configurations of childhood adversities but not the others. Implications for practice and future directions are discussed.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2019.1708744

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR)

Author(s)

Pan, Jingtong
Zaff, Jonathan F.
Porche, Michelle

Year Published

2019

Pages

1-21

ISSN/ISBN

1082-4669

DOI

10.1080/10824669.2019.1708744

Reference ID

6629