Marginalization, Connection, and School Discipline as They Relate to Academic and Psychosocial Adjustment

Abstract

Marginalization and connection experiences at school profoundly shape youth academic and psychosocial adjustment. While schools can function as sites of academic and social preparation and connection, they often replicate the marginalizing social and cultural practices and policies within the larger society. School discipline, specifically the over-representation of youth of color and other marginalized groups across Office Disciplinary Referrals (ODRs), has served as a heuristic for understanding the replication of such inequities in schools. Researchers have demonstrated associations between student perceptions of marginalization, connection, and school discipline (Anyon et al., 2018; Bottiani, Bradshaw, & Mendelson, 2017) and their relations with student outcomes like achievement and juvenile justice contact (Byrd, 2015; Hope, Skoog, Jagers, 2015; Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, Valentine, 2009; Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, & Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2013). However, there is limited research addressing how discipline relates to marginalization and connection and the impact of that relational process on student academic and psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, there is limited scholarship addressing how students make meaning of these experiences within their school contexts. To address these gaps, this dissertation employs a multimethod approach across three studies exploring both quantitative survey data and qualitative open-ended responses. As such, the purpose of this dissertation is threefold: To understand patterns across students’ experiences of marginalization and connection, two fundamental aspects of adolescent development, and their relations with academics and mental health; to investigate the relationships between school discipline, marginalization, and their effects on students’ psychosocial adjustment; and to gain insight into how students make meaning of teacher-student relationships and connection to school.