Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between Middle School Students' Perceptions Of Physical Activity, Student Engagement, And Academic Achievement, Jeremy D. Moretti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physical activity is important, and many adolescents are not meeting the recommendation that youth participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week (CDC, 2011). Physical inactivity among middle school students is on the rise and may be a contributing factor to a decline in academic performance. Prior research has focused primarily on bodily health; however, growing evidence supports the benefits of physical activity for academic achievement (Chomitz et al., 2009). This study examined the relationship between middle school students' perceptions of physical activity and student engagement they relate to academic achievement among 179 middle …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Academic Achievement Among Ghanaian Youth, Ziblim Abukari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Young people in Ghana who grow up in poverty and to families with little or no education endure limited early learning opportunities, underfunded educational systems, and more health and mental health problems compared to their peers from more privileged backgrounds. A significant body of literature addressing the relationship among risk, protection, resilience and academic achievement is based on youth populations in North America and Western Europe. Relatively little is known about the applicability of ecological and risk and resilience frameworks in non-Western countries. Consequently, educational outcomes of young people in Ghana are often characterized by similarities in low achievement, lack …

The Longitudinal Factor Structure Of Parent Involvement And Its Impact On Academic Achievement: Findings From The Ecls-K Dataset, Hui-Fang Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The critical role of parent involvement has been endorsed by educators and educational policy in the United States. However, various definitions and approaches to assess parent involvement have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the impact of parent involvement on child development and failed to provide foundations for practitioners. These contradictory findings, at least in part, reflected that parent involvement is a multidimensional construct which should be captured by many behaviors and activities as well as the limitations of using classical test theory to develop/identify items to assess parent involvement.

This study conducted both CTT and IRT to identify optimal items for …