The Relational Social Support System and Study Engagement in Primary Schools

Social support for studies from teachers, peers and guardians each play an important, distinctive role in the student’s study engagement process. However, previous research has typically studied them separately, focusing mainly on teacher support. Exploring the three support sources simultaneously, including the interrelations between support from different sources, is rare. Moreover, previous research has mainly studied social support as a resource for study engagement, although there is tentative evidence that the interrelation is bidirectional. Social support from teachers has been found to play a particularly important role in students’ engagement in studies. Hence, teachers’ ability to support their pupils is vital. However, extant research that examines how teachers’ resources and contextual factors relate to the support that students perceive from teachers is sparse.

The aim of this doctoral dissertation was to examine social support for studies in Finnish primary schools as a relational system and the relations this support has with students’ perceived study engagement. The relational social support system in primary schools includes students’ perceived social support for their studies from teachers, peers and guardians, as well as the professional support that teachers perceive from colleagues. Also, teachers’ teaching experience, work-related stress and contextual factors such as class group size, school size and socio-economic status (SES) of the school neighbourhood were explored in relation to the social support that students perceive. Gendered variations in students’ perceived social support and study engagement were also studied.

To reach this aim, three part-studies were conducted. In part-study 1, cross- sectional survey data from fourth graders (N = 2,401 students) were analysed with structural equation modelling (SEM), a path model with latent variables, to explore the interrelations between students’ perceived study engagement and social support from teachers, peers and guardians. In part-study 2, the students were followed until sixth grade, and the three-wave longitudinal survey data (NT1 = 2,401, NT2 = 2,067, NT3 = 2,003) were analysed with a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model to explore the bidirectional interrelations between study engagement and social support over time. In part-study 3, the longitudinal data from students were complemented with survey data from their teachers (N = 114 teachers). The combined student– teacher data were analysed with two-level latent growth curve modelling to explore how teachers’ resources and contextual factors relate to the level and change of the support students perceive from their teacher.

The results indicated, that perceiving social support for studies is a dynamic interaction process that students’ perceived study engagement facilitates. The students’ emotions and attitudes towards studying determine whether they will utilise the available social support for their studies or withdraw from interactions around their studies. It appears that students need to find sufficient energy, dedication and absorption in their studies to actively participate in interactions with peers and teachers regarding the studies. Accordingly, study engagement appeared as a precondition for sharing support for studies among peers, which calls for more active initiative from the student than support from teacher. However, engaged students also perceived more encouragement, acknowledgement, empathy and constructive feedback from teachers. In turn, this kind of social support from teachers also facilitated students’ study engagement.

The results provided new insights into the fundamental role social support’s purpose has in determining the essential sources, forms and dynamics of the needed support. In other words, the purpose of the support influences what kind of support is needed, from whom and in which way. Teachers, peers and guardians provide the essential sources of support for students in their studies. Moreover, teacher support and guardian support also contributed to the peer support that students share among each other for their studies. To engage with their studies, students need different kinds of support from each source.

In line with previous literature, the results highlighted the crucial role of emotional and informational support from teachers in promoting students’ study engagement. Teachers’ acknowledgement, encouragement, empathy and care, combined with clear instructions regarding the learning goals and how to achieve them, are essential for students’ study engagement. However, perceiving social support for studies is a dynamic interaction process in which the giver and the receiver of support are both active. Therefore, providing well-fitting support for less engaged students appears to be an especially important and (simultaneously) demanding task for teachers. A lack of meaning and interest in studies may result in a student withdrawing from supportive interactions with teachers around studying. Yet students with decreased levels of study engagement are the ones who need teacher support the most to prevent further disengagement from studies. Hence, teachers’ ability to support their students is crucial. However, extant research that examines how teachers’ resources and contextual factors relate to the support that students perceive from teachers is sparse.

The results of this dissertation highlight the importance of a supportive professional community and occupational wellbeing for teachers in providing support for their students. Collegial support among teachers and manageable levels of work-related stress are important resources for teachers in providing support for their students. A primary school community comprises a nested social support system in which professional support and occupational wellbeing among teachers relate to students’ experiences of support for their studies. However, the students’ own emotions and attitudes towards their studies (i.e., study engagement) play a dominant role in the ways the students perceive the available social support for their studies from adults and participate in peer support for their studies.