Socio-emotional dynamics across one year of lower secondary education: A one-year cross-lagged panel study and links to achievement.

BACKGROUND: Students' emotional and social experiences at school are interrelated dimensions shaping their everyday functioning and development. Although recent research has examined reciprocal associations between emotional and social experiences as well as academic achievement, longitudinal evidence across lower secondary education remains scarce. AIMS: This study aims to examine the development and reciprocal relations of key emotional (worries, anxiety, positive attitudes) and social (teacher-student relationship, peer relationships) dimensions of students' socio-emotional school experiences across the full range of lower secondary education (grade levels 5-11) over one school year, while taking into account students' achievement. SAMPLE: The sample includes 407 students from grade levels 5-11 attending a secondary school in central Germany. METHODS: Participants completed self-report questionnaires at three time points spanning one school year. Standardized scales were used to measure socio-emotional experiences and self-reported grades in German language and mathematics for achievement. To target directional within-person effects while accounting for stable individual differences, we used a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) comprising random-intercept (between-person) components, contemporaneous within-wave links and cross-lagged paths, with gender and grades in German language and mathematics and grade level entered as control variables. RESULTS: Overall, the results suggest stronger between-person than within-person differences. Students' socio-emotional experiences differed according to grade level, gender and achievement in German language. At the within-person level, higher anxiety at t1 predicted more serious social problems with peers at t2. CONCLUSION: The findings underscore the significance of between-level differences in students, while they also indicate only small within-person fluctuations regarding socio-emotional school experiences.