Abstract
Academic agency is recognized as an important predictor of higher education attainment among the general population during the school-to-work transition. However, there is little evidence on whether (a) academic agency is associated with higher education attainment among young people facing education difficulties (i.e., lower attainers), (b) academic agency is associated with a smooth entry in a meaningful job among lower attainers, and (c) these associations vary across educational contexts. This study draws on longitudinal data from lower attainers in the province of Québec (Mage = 16.31, SD = 0.98; 48% females) and in England (Mage = 15.86, SD = 0.72; 42% females), two regions with similar education systems, yet different vocational training provision. In both samples, fewer than one in four participants reach higher education by age 20. Also, in both countries academic agency is associated with a greater likelihood of being in higher education compared to other employment and education outcomes at age 20, but not with rapid entry into meaningful employment. Thus, focussing on higher education attainment and academic-related factors such as academic agency is of limited relevance for understanding lower attainers’ success over school-to work transitions. For them, understanding this transition also requires considering rapid entry in meaningful employment, as well as non-academic forms of agency supporting such work-oriented outcomes.
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Notes
The measurement model reached metric invariance but not scalar invariance. Considering that the main goal of the study is not to compare latent means but rather to compare coefficients across groups, metric invariance is sufficient (Putnick & Bornstein, 2016).
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Acknowledgements
We thank Elizabeth Olivier (Université de Montréal) for her support for the statistical analyses.
Funding
Guillaume Descary was supported by scholarhips from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC # 752-2022-1077), the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture (FRQSC # 304460), Mitacs Globalink (# IT32734), the Institut universitaire Jeunes en difficulté (IUJD), the Centre de recherche en santé publique (CReSP), and the Groupe de recherche sur les environnements scolaires (GRES). Véronique Dupéré received funding to support data collection (Canadian sample) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC # 430-2013-000015, 435-2016-0838); the Canada Research Chairs program (# 954-232437); the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS # 27205, 28816), the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et culture (FRQSC # 164645, 178837), and the Centre de recherche en santé publique (CReSP). Ingrid Schoon received funding from the Nuffield Foundation (# 3295826) that supported the preparation of this article.
Data Sharing DeclarationThe data of the Parcours project will not be deposited. The LSYPE data are available from the UK Data Archive, but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available.
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G.D. designed the study, drafted the manuscript and performed the statistical analysis; V.D. provided one of the datasets, participated in the interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript; S.H. participated in the interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript; I.S. participated in the design of the study, in the interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Descary, G., Dupéré, V., T. Hebert, S. et al. Is Academic Agency Relevant for the School-to-Work Transition of Lower Attainers? Evidence from Canada and England. J. Youth Adolescence 52, 2509–2525 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01843-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01843-1