Academic performance and its relationship with socio-emotional variables in chilean students from vulnerable contexts

Abstract

The declared educational equity in the Chilean context has been permanently contrasted as a difficulty presented by students who are in contexts of high social vulnerability. For this reason, it seems interesting to review other elements that do not belong to structural factors and that can be addressed by the educational community to support students who live in that reality. There is great evidence of the incidence of variables such as attributive styles, self-regulation strategies, school coexistence and academic self-concept regarding school performance, but a specific and joint analysis of these variables for vulnerable realities could provide clues to educational communities in order to prioritize and implement improvement opportunities. The objective of this work was to examine the joint effect of the aforementioned factors with respect to the academic achievement of middle third and fourth year students from vulnerable Chilean schools. The study involved secondary school students from highly socially vulnerable contexts (N=1498). Four Likert scale surveys were used for data collection, which were applied massively and online. Through the Structural Equations Model, results show that academic self-concept obtained the highest statistical significance (beta=.22; p<.05), followed by self-regulation strategies (beta=.12; p<.05). It was also observed that the indiscipline factor obtained a significant but inverse association (beta=-.22; p<.05) with the grades of the general average of the students. The correlations between the variables were also significant, showing that school performance would have a stronger and positive correlation with self-regulation strategies and academic self-concept. The conclusions focus on the anticipation and prevention of situations of indiscipline, the promotion of a positive academic self-concept and the implementation of specific programs that contribute to improvement in self-regulation strategies; considered as practices or actions located within the scope of action of the educational community.