Naska Goagoses

Suicidality is a serious concern among school-aged children and adolescents worldwide. School can be an important environment in which supportive relationships mitigate students’ suicidal ideation and attempts. The aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the association between supportive teacher-student relationships and school students’ suicidal ideation and behaviors. The systematic review was preregistered (PROSPERO CRD42024616199). 1216 articles were identified when search terms were entered in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and ERIC in November 2024, filtering for English language articles. For inclusion, articles needed to report on empirical data that allowed for meta-analytic calculations. Articles were excluded if they reported only on non-suicidal self-harm/injury, as well as qualitative, (quasi)experimental, prevention, and intervention studies. Furthermore, studies only reporting on the negative aspects of teacher-student relationships, combined sources of supportive relationships, and teacher’s relationships and/or interactions with entire class were excluded. Study quality was independently assessed by two reviewers using the NHLBI Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Sensitivity analyses were conducted excluding studies rated as low quality. Based on 20 included studies, an overall small yet significant effect was found ( r = − .14), with high heterogeneity. Moderator analyses revealed differences for gender, sample type, continent, assessment timeframe of suicidal behaviors, statistical measures, and study quality. The findings indicate the significance of teachers in suicide prevention and emphasize the need for professional development to strengthen relationship-building skills.

The aim of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the association between school students’ sense of school belonging and externalizing behavior problems. Search terms were entered in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and ERIC in July 2025, filtering for English language articles from 2000 onwards. For inclusion, articles needed to report on independent empirical data that allowed for meta-analytic calculations. Exclusion criteria concerned certain sample characteristics, operationalization and conceptualization of constructs, and study design. Applying the eligibility criteria in a title-abstract and full-text screening, resulted in the inclusion of 53 articles. A NHLBI checklist was utilized for the quality assessment. Small yet significant effects were found with both cross-sectional ( k = 53, N = 143,980, r = − 0.26) and longitudinal data ( k = 17, N = 29,944, r = − 0.16), albeit with high heterogeneity. Across these, different moderators emerged as significant, with the effect size metric, study quality, and informant of externalizing behavior showing consistent differences. Differentiated meta-analyses for temporal directions revealed bidirectional longitudinal effects from sense of school belonging onto externalizing behaviors ( k = 14, N = 25,111, r  = − 0.17) and vice versa ( k = 7, N = 7929, r = − 0.16). Thus, school belonging and externalizing behaviors are bidirectionally and negatively associated both concurrently and over time. These findings highlight that the promotion of school belonging represents an important focus for schools seeking to support students with behavioral difficulties and strengthen positive developmental pathways.

Teacher–student relationships positively benefit both students’ and teachers (Kincade, Cook, and Goerdt 2020). Thus, understanding factors that support their development and maintenance is highly r...

Ensuring that students are motivated in and beyond middle school is an important educational objective. Based on achievement goal theory, research has demonstrated that the classroom motivational climate can influence students’ motivation and achievement. Instructional practices that foster mastery goal structures have been proposed within the TARGET framework. However, relatively few studies have explored students’ views of these, and thus, the aim of the current study was to explore which instructional practices students perceive as conducive to the classroom motivational climate. In the current qualitative study, 13 students (Grades 6 to 9) in Germany were asked about their past experiences and expressed their desires in semi-structured interviews. A deductive content analysis was utilized to identify instructional practices under the TARGET dimensions. The results provide insights into students’ preferred instructional practices, which are compared with those previously suggested for fostering mastery goal structures in the Discussion. Preliminary implications for practice and future research are suggested.

The current investigation examines pathways linking individual risk factors, namely maladaptive emotion regulation, behavior problems, and drinking motives, with adolescents’ alcohol consumption. In a cross-sectional design, 243 adolescents attending secondary school in Germany completed questionnaires. The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was used to assess maladaptive emotion regulation, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for assessing internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised for assessing the four drinking motives, namely social, enhancement, coping, and conformity motives. Adolescents also reported their daily and problematic alcohol consumption. The path analysis revealed that maladaptive emotion regulation was positively associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, and all four drinking motives. Externalizing problems were positively associated with adolescents’ enhancement and coping motives, and their alcohol consumption. Internalizing problems were only negatively associated with enhancement motives. Only coping motives were positively associated with alcohol consumption. Moreover, maladaptive emotion regulation had an indirect effect on alcohol consumption, via externalizing problems and coping motives. The findings emphasize the interactions between the risk factors in contributing to adolescent alcohol consumption, underscoring the importance of targeting emotion regulation and coping motives in substance use prevention efforts prior and during adolescence.

The current study examined the bidirectional associations between perceived social support from parents, teachers, and peers with students’ internalizing and externalizing behavior problems across lower secondary school. A total of 1,746 students (47.7% girls; M _age = 13.76) in Finland completed questionnaires in Grade 7 and again in Grade 9. Based on a cross-lagged panel model, only peer support and internalizing problems showed a negative bidirectional association over time. Internalizing problems negatively predicted parental support, while parental support negatively predicted externalizing problems. Additionally, externalizing problems negatively predicted teacher support. The findings highlight the unique associations with different social support sources and show how a lack of social support may foster behavioral problems, yet the presence of behavior problems can also elicit reduced social support.

Through rule-setting and communication, parents play a vital role in the socialization of their children’s media and substance use. This study provides a descriptive overview of alcohol-specific parental rules and communication, as reported by adolescents in Germany. It examines their concurrent associations with adolescents’ alcohol consumption and video-gaming behaviors. By addressing both alcohol consumption and video-gaming, the study captures how parents navigate two common adolescent behaviors that differ in social acceptability, typical frequency, and age of initiation. The sample consisted of 738 adolescents (413 female; M _age = 13.37) recruited from lower secondary schools in northern Germany. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing the rules and frequency of communication they received from their parents regarding alcohol consumption and video-gaming. They also reported their alcohol consumption and time spent playing video games, and completed scales measuring problematic consumption and gaming. We present the frequency of specific rules and explore differences by age and gender. Strict parental rule-setting for alcohol was negatively associated with adolescents’ weekend alcohol consumption and problematic consumption, while frequency of communication showed no association. Regarding video-gaming, strict rule-setting and increased communication about gaming risks were positively associated with daily gaming hours and problematic gaming. These findings highlight the importance of parental involvement in setting rules and communicating to help adolescents navigate age-appropriate activities that can become excessive and lead to negative developmental outcomes.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) quality is typically determined by key components such as the child-to-teacher ratio, teacher qualifications, the learning environment, and the quality of teacher–child interactions. The aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the effect of different ECEC quality components on children's language and mathematical competences in early primary school. Suitable search terms were entered in Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and ERIC in February 2024. To be included the articles needed to report on quantitative studies that examined the association between ECEC quality components and children's mathematical and/or language competences in Grade 1–2. Articles needed to be published in English or German in a peer-reviewed journal from the year 2000 onwards. Additionally, articles were excluded based on certain designs, and if the focus was on special populations, psychometric evaluations, bilingual or second language learning, and ECEC comparisons. The narrative synthesis includes 17 articles (N = 31656), of which 11 are included in the meta-analysis. The quality of the included articles was assessed with a NHLBI checklist. The meta-analysis revealed a small but significant pooled effect of process quality, specifically for student–teacher relationships and interaction quality ( Δ = .11, p < .001, CI [.05, .18]), albeit with high heterogeneity. Similarly, pre-academic activities demonstrated a small, significant effect ( Δ = .07, p < .001, CI [.02, .11]) with low heterogeneity. However, structural quality was not significant. The narrative synthesis provided additional insights, highlighting that emotional support and classroom organization often showed inconsistent associations with academic competences, whereas targeted pre-academic activities are more consistently linked to positive outcomes. Limitations include the small number of studies, substantial heterogeneity, reliance on older data, and a lack of global representation beyond Europe and North America. Nonetheless, the importance of high quality ECEC in fostering children's academic competences in primary school is demonstrated, emphasizing the need for further research to strengthen the evidence base.