Poster #81 - Mechanisms Linking Childhood Adversity with Motivation for Learning

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Childhood adversity (CA) is associated with poor educational outcomes, such as low grades and school dropout (Lansford et al., 2002). However, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain poorly understood. Here, we examine how different forms of CA influence motivation for learning, feelings of belonging at school, and perceived utility value of school. CA encompasses many types of experiences (e.g. poverty, violence exposure) that may influence motivation for learning differently. We apply a recent conceptual model that distinguishes experiences of CA into those that reflect threat, characterized by harm or threat of harm to the child (e.g. exposure to violence) and deprivation, characterized by a lack of expected environmental inputs (e.g. lack of cognitive stimulation, poverty; McLaughlin, Lambert, & Sheridan, 2014). Clarifying whether threat and deprivation work through distinct mechanisms to impact motivation for learning and beliefs about school could provide novel targets to guide interventions that promote academic success.

Our project uses data from two large studies of CA. The first sample (N=250) includes children aged 10-18 years who experienced interpersonal violence (e.g. abuse, domestic violence); many children in this sample also experienced deprivation. The second sample (N=225) includes children aged 10-12 years selected based on socio-economic status. Approximately half of this sample lives in poverty, and the sample varies widely in levels of CA exposure. We administered a School Mindset measure in both samples, with subscales examining growth mindset (Yeager et al., 2016), sense of belonging at school (Walton & Cohen, 2007), and perceived utility value of school (Hulleman et al., 2010). We hypothesized that threat exposure (e.g. physical/sexual abuse, domestic violence) would be associated with lower growth mindset and lower sense of belonging at school and that both threat and deprivation (poverty/neglect) exposure would be associated with lower perceived utility value of school. We evaluated these hypotheses using linear regression. All models included indicators for both threat and deprivation to evaluate the unique associations of each type of CA with these outcomes.

Results: Consistent with our hypothesis, only experiences of threat were associated with growth mindset, such that children with higher levels of exposure to violence had lower growth mindset (β=-.16, p=.05). In contrast, only experiences of deprivation were associated with feelings of belonging at school (β=-.34, p<.001) and perceived utility value of school (β=-.24, p<.003). Children with higher levels of deprivation had reduced sense of belonging and lower perceived utility value of school.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that experiences of threat and deprivation have distinct associations with motivation for learning and beliefs about school. These findings have relevance for targeting interventions to children who are at high risk of academic difficulties and suggest that different intervention approaches may be most helpful for children with different types of CA experiences. Data collection of academic performance will be complete in October, 2018. We will perform additional analyses to determine if growth mindset explains the association between threat and academic performance and whether feelings of belonging and perceived utility value of school explain the association between deprivation and academic achievement.

Authors

• Aaron P Flaster, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Lucy Lurie, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rob Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katie McLaughlin, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author