The Mindsets of Promising Student Leaders: Considering the Roles of Regulatory Focus on Peer-Focused School Interventions

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

In ongoing attempts to minimize antisocial behavior and promote prosocial behaviors in schools, interventions have been used to place students on more adaptive trajectories and promote a healthy school climate (see Jiménez-Barbero et al., 2016). We expand these efforts by considering the ways individual differences may play a role at multiple phases of intervention (i.e., program selection; program impacts).

As part of a larger intervention to promote healthy school climates, we considered whether individual differences in students’ regulatory focus (i.e., gain focus, non-loss focus; Higgins, 1997) 1) predicted whether students were more likely to volunteer for student-focused workshops, 2) uniquely informed students’ values toward promoting a healthy school climate and perceived barriers to promoting the school climate, and 3) moderated and further promoted the effects of receiving intervention. Three hundred eighty-four students from a high school in the Midwest region of the United States (43.9% girls) completed measures about the school climate, their values about promoting peace and reducing violence at school, and the actions and obstacles they experienced in incorporating bystander behaviors at school. Following the baseline collection of surveys, a subset of students (n = 65) volunteered to participate in student-focused workshop series to learn about bystander intervention strategies to recognize and promote helpful behaviors and respond to threatening behaviors at school. Following this workshop, all students completed a second series of questionnaires.

A logistic regression found that students’ baseline endorsements of gain regulatory focus (concerns about attaining a desirable outcome; O.R. = 1.38) and non-gain regulatory focus (concerns about missing out on a desirable; O.R. = 1.30) predicted an increased likelihood in volunteering for a bystander intervention workshop. A repeated-measures ANCOVA found between-subjects effects of a) baseline gain regulatory focus and b) bystander intervention on student outcomes. That is, students who reported greater gain focus and those who received the intervention each reported greater motivations to promote peace and reduce violence, reported fewer barriers to promoting the school climate, and reported taking more actions to promote the climate. Further, two-way interactions were supported involving intervention and gain regulatory focus. Among youth who received intervention, gain regulatory focus was associated with declines in perceived barriers to promote the school climate. In contrast, among youth who did not receive intervention, gain regulatory focus was associated with increases in perceived barriers. In addition, among youth who received the intervention, regulatory gain focus was associated with increases in perceived opportunities to promote peace in the school climate. In contrast, gain focus among youth who did not receive the intervention was associated with decreases in values of peace.

The current findings provide evidence that regulatory focus, and particularly focus on life gains, is informative at multiple stages of school-focused interventions. In understanding the pressures and motivations that shape students’ pursuits to achieve goals and avoid setbacks, administrators may be able to identify students who would be excited to contribute to a healthier school climate and may benefit from learning how to be models for their peers.

Authors

• Jordan Ashton Booker, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Presenting Author

• Shane McCarty, Promote Care & Prevent Harm
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kyle Pacque, Promote Care & Prevent Harm
  Non-Presenting Author