The conference Developing Strength and Resilience in Children, 1-2 Nov. 2010 in Oslo.

1. Main factors to make wellbeing and learning a
reality
Anne G. Danielsen (PhD)
Oslo, 2010

2. 1. Background
2. Outcomes: Wellbeing and learning
3. Aim
4. Theoretical perspective
5. Previous research
6. Research questions
7. Methods
8. Results
9. Conclusions
10. Implications
Anne G. Danielsen

3. Anne G. Danielsen

4. a risk or resource for students’
wellbeing (Samdal, 1999)
Anne G. Danielsen

5.  Subjective wellbeing
 Positive development in children and youth
 Focus on
◦ Developing strengths
◦ Positive responses to adversity
◦ Strenghtening important institutions
 Complements, does not replace, risk behaviour-
and disability-approaches
 Main purpose: Identitfying supportive and
motivating factors that may relate to
 wellbeing and learning of students
(Danielsen, 2010).
Anne G. Danielsen

6.  (a) positive subjective experiences,
◦ like subjective wellbeing , self-determination, self-
efficacy and self-regulated learning (academic initiative)
 (b) positive personality – a perspective on human
beings as self-organizing, self-directed, adaptive
entities,
◦ e.g. self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and
social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997), and
 (c) positive institutions
◦ e.g. schools, bringing out the best in positive character
and subjective experiences (Seligman &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
◦ School setting: the major extra-familial environment
Anne G. Danielsen

7.  Belonging at school:
◦ economic or educational success as adults
◦ long-term health and wellbeing (OECD, 2004)
 Success in education:
◦ individuals’ opportunities to live a successful life
(Ottawa Charter to Health Promotion, 1986; Masten
& Coatsworth, 1998; OECD, 2004).
 Individuals’ wellbeing and learning
◦ prerequisite for societies to achieve sustainable
socio-economic and democratic development
(OECD, 2004)
Anne G. Danielsen

8.  Chapter 9a. The pupils’ school environment
 Section 9a-1. General requirements
 All pupils attending primary and
secondary schools are entitled to a
good physical and psychosocial
environment conducive to health,
wellbeing and learning.
Anne G. Danielsen

9. Subjective Wellbeing
 Quality of life or “happiness”
 people’s own evaluations of their
lives, both affective and cognitive
Anne G. Danielsen

10.  life satisfaction, as for school students in
Norway, and
 school satisfaction, considering school as
one of the important life domains of
wellbeing
◦ such as work, family, friends, or community
(Huebner, Suldo, Smith, & McKnight, 2004a;
Huebner, Valois, Suldo, Smith, McKnight, Seligson
et al., 2004b).
Anne G. Danielsen

11.  an important cognitive aspect of subjective
wellbeing
(Huebner, Valois, Paxton, & Drane, 2005)
 views of life conditions and wellbeing
experienced and assessed by the
individuals themselves
(Huebner et al., 2004)
 global, cognitive judgments of one’s life
(Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991)
 a person’s evaluation of various areas of his
or her life (such as the school context)
Anne G. Danielsen

12.  A right to feel good about themselves and the
institutions in which they function (Verkuyten &
Thijs, 2002)
 An important outcome of schooling in itself
 An affective variable, students’ enjoyment and
evaluation of their school experiences (Huebner &
Gilman, 2006)
 Social belonging and inclusion (PISA-studies;
educational policy documents)
 Liking school: (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children-studies)
 Disaffection with school may reflect
alienation or disconnection from school and
withdrawal from school activities
Anne G. Danielsen

13.  Engagement in challenging, task oriented
behaviour (Larson, 2000)
 Self-regulated learning; motivational processes
◦ Goal setting, effort, positive beliefs, valuing
learning (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997)
 Obtain better results (more likely)
 Become lifelong learners (more likely)
 Major new goal of education (OECD, 2004)
 Contribution to creating a good life (Report
No. 16 [2006-2007] to the Norwegian Parliament)
Anne G. Danielsen

14.  a critical developmental period in shaping
patterns of mental health (WHO, 2000) and
 health enhancing-behaviors
(Larson, Wilson, Mortimer, 2002).
 Both growth and problems are potential
outcomes of the adolescent period, depending
on the kind of care and opportunities that
adults and institutions afford
(Roeser, Eccles, Sameroff, 1998).
 improving a student’s school initiative may
prevent student boredom, disaffection, and
drop-out from school (cf. Finn, 1989;
Fredricks et al.).Anne G. Danielsen

15. Apply a positive psychological perspective
School-related factors
Lower secondary schools, i.e. grade 8-10
relate positively to students’
Life satisfaction,
School satisfaction and Academic initiative
Anne G. Danielsen

16.  Self-determination theory
(Deci & Ryan, 2000)
 What are
 supportive and motivating
environments in schools
 according to self-determination
theory?
Anne G. Danielsen

17. Warmth
vs
Hostility
Structure
vs
Caos
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion
Self-
determined
Motivation
-
Engagement
Life
satisfaction
School
satisfaction
Academic
initiative
Relatedness
Competence
Autonomy
Supportive and Motivating Environments
Active en-
couragement
Student needs Student motivation Outcomes
Anne G. Danielsen
Figure 1

18.  Relatedness; belonging and feeling connected to
others
 Competence; to control outcomes and to
experience effectance, such as having a sense of
mastery over one’s capacity to act in the
environment
 Autonomy; to be agentic, to feel like the “origin”
of one’s actions, and to have a voice, initiative,
input or choice in determining our own behavior
(Ryan & Deci, 2000; Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Anne G. Danielsen

19.  Interpersonal involvement
 Competence-involving structure
 Autonomy-support
Reeve (2002); Reeve et al. (2008)
Anne G. Danielsen
Warmth
vs
Hostility
Structure
vs
Chaos
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion

20.  Interpersonal involvement (Reeve, 2005)
 The creation of social bonds
◦ a) the other person cares about my welfare
◦ b) the other person likes me (Baumeister & Leary, 1995)
 Support for relatedness provided by teachers
◦ a sense of being close to students,
◦ a sense of warmth, affection, and acceptance of
students (Reeve, 2006; Reeve et al., 2008)
◦ pedagogical caring (Goldstein, 1999; Wentzel, 1997;
Noddings, 2005).
◦ can be important to students’ development of
secure relations to adults (Furrer & Skinner, 2003)
Anne G. Danielsen
Warmth
vs
Hostility

21.  Competence-involving structure
 Continued feed-back provided by teachers:
 clear expectations, optimal challenges, and timely,
informative, consistent, sensitive, and responsive
feedback (in contrast to chaos or laissez-faire)
 suggestions for how future performance
can be improved, may
◦ reduce perceptions of uncertainty
◦ help the student in developing a sense of
perceived control over possible stressful
circumstances (Rosenfeld et al., 2000, Hattie, 2009;
Hattie & Timperley, 2007; OECD, 2005; Reeve, 2002).
Anne G. Danielsen
Structure
vs
Chaos

22.  Autonomy-supportive teachers
◦ help students develop a sense of congruence
between their classroom behavior and their inner
motivational resources
◦ provide students with high-quality interpersonal
relationships (Reeve, 2002).
 Responsive, supportive, motivate through interest,
asking students what they want (Reeve; Reeve &
Jang, 2006).
◦ enhanced motivation, engagement, learning, and
psychological wellbeing (Reeve & Halusic, 2009)
Anne G. Danielsen
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion

23.  two independent contextual variables
◦ can be complementary and mutually supportive
 Teachers can
◦ provide little or much competence-involving
structure
 Teachers can
◦ be controlling or autonomy-supportive
 “A lack of structure yields not an
autonomy-supportive environment but
instead one that is permissive, indulgent, or
laissez-faire” (Reeve, 2006, p. 231).
Anne G. Danielsen

24. Anne G. Danielsen

25.  Most young adolescents report
 relatively high levels of life satisfaction
(Currie, Gabhainn, Godeau, Roberts, Smith,
Currie et al., 2008).
 11, 13 and 15-year-old school-students in
41 countries and regions across Europe and
North America.
 social support from family, teachers, and
peers is associated with perceived life
satisfaction (Diener & Fujita, 1995).
Anne G. Danielsen

26.  School may be one of the life domains with
the largest impact on students’ life
satisfaction (Huebner, Laughlin, Ash &
Gilman, 1998)
 Literature in this area is scant (Suldo, Riley, &
Shaffer, 2006).
 Knowledge about the impact of school
satisfaction on students’ life satisfaction:
 important for understanding how school-
related resources influence (and change)
health and well-being.
Anne G. Danielsen

27.  if the school context
 provides social support for
 relatedness,
 competence and
 autonomy (Baker et al., 2003).
 Associated with increased school satisfaction
 In accordance with self-determination theory
(Ryan & Deci, 2000)
Anne G. Danielsen

28.  Large cross-country differences in the
prevalence of students reporting to like
school (Currie, et al., 2008).
 Female students tend to report higher levels
of school satisfaction than males do, but
 this gender gap narrows between ages 11
and 15.
 Compared with other countries;
◦ Norwegian students tend to report very high
levels of liking school (Currie et al.) and also a
very high sense of belonging to their school (ILS,
2006).
Anne G. Danielsen

29.  -such as
 perceived teacher support
 care, understanding, fairness, and
friendliness,
 appear very influential on
 students’ school satisfaction
(Rosenfeld et al., 2000; Reddy, Rhodes, &
Mulhall, 2003; Hamre & Pianta, 2006; Skinner
et al., 2008).
Anne G. Danielsen

30.  Youth initiative
 studied in different social contexts,
 structured voluntary activities, but also in
 school, family, and when students spend
time with peers in more unstructured ways
 during schoolwork, students report low
intrinsic motivation.
(Larson, 2000; Hansen et al., 2003; Larson et al., 2005) .
 academic initiative was not previously
examined
Anne G. Danielsen

31. Anne G. Danielsen

32. Psycho-
social
support
from
parents,
teachers
and
classmates
Students’
Life
Satisfaction
Support in
the school
environment
School
satisfaction
Perceived
competence General
Self-Efficacy
Student outcomes
S
e
l
f
-
d
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
t
h
e
o
r
y
Academic
Initiative
Figure 2

33.  1. To what extent is support in the school
environment related to students’ perceived life
satisfaction, school satisfaction and academic
initiative?
 2. To what extent do perceived teacher support,
perceived classmate support, and
perceived student autonomy relate to students’
self-reported academic initiative at the individual
and at the school class levels?
Anne G. Danielsen

34. 1: Danielsen, Samdal, Hetland, & Wold, 2009;
The Journal of Educational Research, 102,
303–318.
2: Danielsen, Wiium, Wilhelmsen, & Wold, 2010;
Journal of School Psychology, 48, 247-267.
3: Danielsen, Breivik, & Wold, in press;
Scandinavian Journal of Educational
Research.
Anne G. Danielsen

35.  nationally representative samples of 13 and
15 year-olds,
 the sixth and seventh World Health
Organization (WHO) survey of
 Health Behavior in School-aged Children
(Currie et. al., 2004; Currie, et al., 2008).
rriet
Anne G. Danielsen

36.  National ethical approval was obtained
from the Regional Committee for
Medical Research Ethics (REK).
Data collection
 Teachers, or other specially trained
personnel, supervised the students’
self-completion of the questionnaires
in the school classrooms
Anne G. Danielsen

37.  Descriptive analysis
 Structural equation modeling (SEM)
 Two-level modeling
 Multiple-group analysis
Anne G. Danielsen

38.  The sample sizes were large
 The samples were nationally representative
(Currie et al., 2001).
 The results can be generalized to the
Norwegian populations that were studied
Anne G. Danielsen

39. Anne G. Danielsen

40. Anne G. Danielsen
Preliminary results

41. Classmate
support
Teacher
support
Parent
support
School
satisfaction
Perceived
competence
General
Self-
efficacy
-
Life-
satisfaction
.14
.23
.55
.19
.05
.27
.18
.43
.
.25
.
.47
.
.43
.37
.16
.16
.
Figur 2. Structural model of relationships between
support in the school environment and
students’ perceived life satisfaction (paper 1)
Anne G. Danielsen
.68

42. (a) Student level
(b) Class level
Teacher
support
Classmate
support
Student
autonomi
Teacher
support
Classmate
support
Academic
Initiative
Academic
Initiative
Figure 3.
Two level analysis.
Dependent variabel:
“Academic Initiative”.
PCAS: Combined
Teacher support and
Student autonomy
(paper 2)
.86**
*
.32***
.13**.43***
.75***
.47***
R2=.88***
.37 .18
.83***
.85***
PCAS
Student
autonomi
R2=.16***
Note: ***p < .001
**p < .01
Anne G. Danielsen
PCAS

43. Anne G. Danielsen

44.  pedagogical caring and
 perceived competence are related to
 academic initiative and
 life satisfaction
 in 13- and 15-year old students.
Anne G. Danielsen

45.  - in consistency with previous US studies
(Rosenfeld et al. 2000; Reddy, Rhodes, &
Mulhall, 2003; Hamre & Pianta, 2006)
 This result is in accordance with
self-determination theory;
 social contexts that support the needs of
relatedness, competence, and autonomy are
associated with psychological well-being
(Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Anne G. Danielsen

46.  The students’ perceptions of
 pedagogical caring and autonomy support
(PCAS)
from their teachers were
 strongly related (.86) to self-reported
academic initiative at the class level.
 Students’ perceptions of teacher support
 varied considerably between school classes.
 Some school classes provide more favourable
environments for the development of
academic initiative than do others.
Anne G. Danielsen

47.  the findings furthermore support
 the existence of a relational zone
(Goldstein, 1999), and the importance of
 pedagogical caring (Wentzel, 1997;
Noddings, 2005),
 relatedness (e.g. Furrer & Skinner, 2003;
Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kinderman,
2008), and
 emotional support (Malecki & Demaray,
2003) in the learning environment.
Anne G. Danielsen

48.  crucial to human life, both to nurture a
global need to belong and to provide more
situational or task specific support (cf.
Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
 Because relatedness is likely to facilitate
 internalization of the value of schoolwork,
 relatedness may facilitate students’
engagement with school and
 have a positive influence on students’
 initiative for those school tasks that initially
are not intrinsically motivated.
Anne G. Danielsen

49. Anne G. Danielsen

50.  By supporting students’ experiences of
relatedness, competence, and autonomy in
schools,
 a developmental pathway to psychological
wellbeing and increasing learning may open.
 Self-determination theory:
 interpersonal involvement,
 competence-involving structure, and
 autonomy-support
 are crucial and mutually supportive factors
Anne G. Danielsen

51. Anne G. Danielsen