EASING THE TRANSITION FROM ELEMENTARY TO MIDDLE LEVEL EDUCATION (SELF ESTEEM, SELF CONCEPT, ADOLESCENT).

Abstract

A total of 367 fifth and sixth graders were identified in the spring 1982, from district projection lists specific to one 6-8 middle school. This sample represented five separate schools; one K-5, three K-6 schools, and one 6-8 school. Subjects were administered a questionnaire two weeks prior to the end of the 1982 school year, three days into the 1983 school year, and three more times during the first quarter of the new school year. The questionnaire was composed of nine self-image measures that had been utilized with early adolescents in either self-image research or investigations focusing upon school transition. Transition effects (as evidenced by time 1 and time 2 comparisons) were observed on the measures of self-consciousness, victimization, and anonymity only. Perceptions of anonymity and victimization were significantly greater at the start of a new school year (time 2) than they had been prior to transition (time 1). Self-consciousness scores showed a significant decrease from pre- to post-transition. Timing of transition comparisons revealed significant effects for the self-consciousness, victimization, and anonymity measures. Both feeder school conditions expressed significantly greater perceptions of self-consciousness and victimization than students making the transition within the same school. For duration of transitional effects (all five measurement occasions), nonsignificant effects were observed on all nine self-image constructs. Collectively, the immediate impact of transition upon early adolescent self-consciousness, and perceptions of victimization and anonymity, was not measurable nine weeks into the new school year. The detriments to self-image attributable to school transition were transitory at best. Likewise, timing of transition (i.e., 5th or 6th grade) was a moot point nine weeks into the new school year.