Longitudinal Stability of Academic Helplessness in Middle Schools

Objectives This study examined the trait, state, and occasion of academic helplessness in detail and explored the longitudinal stability of academic helplessness in middle schools. Methods A longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on 2,325 repeatedly measured from the first to third grades of middle school in the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 (KCYPS 2018). The latent trait-state-occasion(TSO) model was analyzed after imposing constraints on occasion factors, measurement error, and variance of occasion factors for stable parameter estimation. Results The latent trait-state-occasion(TSO) model was found to be suitable for academic helplessness in middle school, and the average explanatory amount for academic lethargy was 26.4% in trait and 73.6% in occasion. In addition, the autoregressive coefficient for longitudinal stability of the academic helplessness occasion was .092 ∼.099. Conclusions It was confirmed that trait and occasion coexist in academic helplessness in middle school. However, the influence of the environmental context was more significant than that of individual traits, suggesting that interventions or programs to reduce academic helplessness have significant implications.