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The present study examined the interconnections between parental motivational support and children's academic coping as a bidirectional system, with each social partner shaping changes in the other, using a two-wave sample of 1,020 students in grades three through six, aged 8-13, measured at the beginning and end of one school year in a school district in the northeastern United States. Using a motivational model of academic coping that specified both core ways of coping and a set of interpersonal motivational resources that parents can offer their children, cross-lagged panel path models examined whether initial levels of parent support (a combination of involvement, structure, and autonomy support) predicted changes in both children's total coping profile and their individual adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping, while simultaneously investigating whether children's coping profile and individual ways predicted changes in parenting. Results for children's total coping profile and individual adaptive ways supported hypotheses about reciprocal effects, whereas findings for individual maladaptive ways of coping were more differentiated: Parenting predicted changes in coping for all maladaptive ways except rumination, but only concealment, self-pity, and projection predicted changes in parenting. Results did not differ by grade or gender. Potential avenues for future research, limitations, and implications for parenting practice were discussed.

Although motivational theories agree that environmental factors (like interpersonal relationships and pedagogical practices) are crucial in shaping students' motivational development, few comprehensive conceptualizations of motivational contexts have been proposed. Instead, individual theories tend to focus on the contextual antecedents of the specific self-processes each prioritizes (e.g., self-efficacy, achievement goals). This has produced a cloud of disparate contextual factors that practitioners and interventionists, trying to apply work from the field as a whole, can find fragmented and confusing. Drawing on bioecological, phenomenological, ecocultural, and situative models, we outline an overarching framework that views motivational contexts as "complex dynamic multilevel social ecologies." We explore three ways such a framework can help create a more comprehensive and comprehensible picture of the contextual antecedents identified by current theories of motivation. First, we examine the complexity inherent in "microsystems," like the classroom, and propose three strategies for identifying motivationally relevant features. Second, we focus on students' multiple worlds or "mesosystems" and outline different ways they can be organized and operate to shape motivation. Third, we consider "macrosystems" and highlight how societal forces, organized in interlocking systems of risk and resources, create stratified and unequal niches that differentially support the motivation of students from diverse backgrounds. Consistent with other researchers, we argue that such overarching frameworks are both integrative and generative. They not only offer places for the range of factors already identified by motivational theories, but also suggest avenues for discovering additional factors and examining how they work together to shape student motivation and its development.

Students' achievement-related self-beliefs, as manifest in values, goal orientations, perceived efficacy, mindsets, and a sense of autonomy and self-determination, have been the centerpiece of motivation theories that describe learning and development. The premise of the current special issue is that these intrapersonal beliefs tell us only half the story. We argue that what is missing from much of the current work on motivation is recognition of the rich and nuanced characteristics of students' interpersonal relationships, learning contexts, and cultures and their attendant social processes, all of which can influence an individual student's motivation and engagement. We believe that unless the processes that explain how these influences take place are explicitly acknowledged and studied in greater depth and frequency, the field of motivation will not move forward in meaningful ways. Toward this end, we have invited authors in this special issue to highlight theoretical frameworks and targeted motivation constructs that inform these issues, describe specific social constructs and processes that might explain contextual influences, and propose new directions for motivation science that will integrate these social perspectives with more traditional intrapersonal models of motivation. Their papers focus on a range of social processes emanating from interpersonal contexts most central to children's lives, and they focus on ways in which these processes support (or undermine) students' motivation to learn. Additional topics include discussion of how characteristics of these relationships intersect with and are shaped by the broader social contexts in which they are embedded, such as socially engineered learning structures and culturally based ideologies.

Mindfulness training (MT) for teachers has become popular, yet gaps remain in our understanding of the time-course of the impacts of MT on teacher- and classroom-outcomes; the generalizability of MT impacts on elementary versus secondary teachers; and how characteristics of teachers and schools may moderate the impacts of MT. In this randomized-controlled trial, we examine the near- and longer-term impacts of the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance (MBEB) program with regard to improving middle school teachers' mindfulness, self-compassion, occupational health and well-being, and quality of interactions with students in their self-nominated "most stressful classroom." The sample included 58 sixth through eighth grade teachers randomized to condition (n = 29 MBEB and n = 29 Waitlist Control) who were assessed at baseline, postprogram, and follow-up (4 months later). Results showed that compared with controls, MBEB teachers reported greater occupational self-compassion and less job stress and anxiety at postprogram and follow-up; as well as less emotional exhaustion and depression at follow-up. No observed differences in quality of teachers' interactions with students in their most stressful classrooms (classroom organization or emotional support) were found at postprogram. At follow-up, however, results showed MBEB teachers had better classroom organization than control teachers. Exploratory analyses showed that longer-term impacts of MBEB were moderated by teaching experience and school type, with newer teachers ([less than or equal to]5 years) and teachers in Grades 6-8 schools showing more beneficial personal and classroom outcomes at follow-up compared with more experienced teachers or those working in Grades K-8 schools, respectively. Implications for future research and teacher professional development are discussed.

Building upon contemporary models of teaching that suggest that teachers' own well-being is related to their classroom practice and student outcomes, we examined whether middle school teachers' mindfulness skills were related to their concurrent occupational health and well-being (job stress, occupational burnout, and depressive and anxiety symptoms), and quality of their interactions with students in their "most stressful" class during the school day. Multivariate regression analyses of 58 middle school teachers indicated that teacher mindfulness was significantly associated with lower levels of job stress, occupational burnout, and depressive and anxiety symptoms; and higher levels of observers' ratings of teachers' emotionally supportive interactions with students in their most stressful classroom. Occupational burnout, in contrast, was negatively related to observers' ratings of emotional support and organization in the classroom. Results suggest individual differences in middle school teachers' mindfulness may affect their interactions with students in the middle school classroom directly and through reductions in burnout, though longitudinal studies of these relations are needed. Findings are discussed in relation to intervention efforts to improve teacher mindfulness through training in order to support occupational health and well-being, improve the quality of teacher-student interactions in the classroom, and increase student engagement and learning.

In this article, we aimed to contribute to a fuller understanding of the complex social ecologies that shape students' academic development by focusing on richer and more precise conceptualizations of mesosystem effects. First, building on bioecological models, we argued for the importance of "collective influences," defined as influences from multiple microsystems that act in concert to shape students' academic functioning and development. We identified three ways collective effects can operate: (1) coactively, (2) contingently, and (3) sequentially. Second, we demonstrated the utility of this framework by using it to organize a narrative review of 32 studies of the effects of parents, teachers, and peers on students' academic engagement. The framework was used to classify studies, integrate findings, identify trends, and suggest directions for future study. Third, we explored next steps in the conceptualization and study of complex social ecologies, by incorporating perspectives that are more developmental, cultural, sociohistorical, and inclusive.

Many subareas share a common interest in students' "motivational resilience," defined broadly as patterns of action that allow students to constructively deal with, overcome, recover, and learn from encounters with academic obstacles and failures. However, research in each of these areas often progresses in relative isolation, and studies rarely utilize developmental or social-contextual approaches. As a result, we do not yet have a clear understanding of how to help children and adolescents develop a rich and flexible repertoire of tools to deal productively with everyday academic challenges and difficulties. In this article, we knit together these disparate areas of work to create an integrated developmental and social-contextual framework that can guide the future study of these processes. First, we summarize nine areas of work that focus on students' actions on the ground when they encounter academic difficulties: academic resilience, mastery versus helplessness, engagement and re-engagement, academic coping, self-regulated learning, adaptive help seeking, emotion regulation, and buoyancy as well as tenacity, perseverance, and productive persistence. In each area, we highlight work that is explicitly developmental and that depicts key social-contextual factors that shape motivational resilience. Second, we sketch an overarching social-contextual and developmental framework that holds a place for each of these processes. Third, we identify multiple areas where cross-fertilization among researchers can contribute to improved educational practice and study of the development of motivational resilience. An overarching goal of this article (and the special section more generally) is to take first steps toward "field building" on this crucial topic.

The way that students cope with the difficulties and setbacks they encounter daily in their academic work can make a material difference to their learning, school success, and capacity to re-engage with challenging educational activities. Because of their potential importance to students' everyday academic resilience, educators and researchers are interested in the development of adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping--both how they improve or deteriorate over students' educational careers and the factors that underlie their differential development. Using information on self-reports of 5 adaptive and 6 maladaptive ways of coping, collected from 1,018 American third through sixth graders in fall and spring of the same school year, this study examined (1) the normative progression of these 11 ways of coping across fall of third to spring of sixth grade, and (2) whether developmental patterns differed for students with differing motivational resources. A generally stable profile of constructive coping was evident during Grades 3 and 4 (in which adaptive strategies were high and maladaptive responses low), followed by modest improvements across fourth to fifth grades. Marked shifts were apparent across the transition to middle school. Compared to spring of fifth grade, students in fall of sixth grade reported lower levels of all adaptive and higher levels of all maladaptive ways of coping, and this trend persisted across the first year of middle school. Although motivational resources did not produce differing developmental trends, they did seem to organize coping. Highest levels of adaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal assets, just as the highest levels of maladaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal liabilities. Findings suggest that both motivational and developmental approaches are needed to fully account for patterns of age-graded trends in academic coping across late elementary and early middle school.

In response to growing interest in mindfulness as a support for educators, the current study sought to create and test a new multidimensional and multi-informant measure of teacher mindfulness in the classroom. To counter some of the limitations of context-general self-reports, we designed two theoretically based classroom-specific measures that capture the experience and expression of mindful teacher behavior from the perspective of "teachers" and "students". Drawing on emerging consensus from experts on mindfulness in education, the measures incorporated three dimensions of mindfulness, namely, Calm, Clear, and Kind teacher behavior in the classroom, as well as their antitheses, namely, Reactive, Distracted, and Critical teacher behavior. Utilizing data from 78 sixth- to eighth-grade teachers and 550 of their students, teacher- and student-report item sets tapping these dimensions were tested for reliability and validity across three time points. Based on confirmatory factor, reliability, structural invariance, and correlational analyses, subscales generally demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, cross-year stabilities, convergent and criterion validity with multiple established measures, and some overlap across reporters. In terms of connections to observer ratings from the CLASS-S, teacher subscales showed consistent but modest connections, whereas student subscales showed higher correlations (especially at time 2), suggesting that students and observers converged in their perceptions of teachers' "expressions" of mindfulness. Possible improvements to both measures as well as implications for future research on teacher mindfulness are discussed.

Background: Parents, teachers, and researchers all share the goal of optimizing students' academic engagement (Handbook of social influences in school contexts: Social-emotional, motivation, and cognitive outcomes, 2016, Routledge, New York, NY). While separate lines of research have demonstrated the importance of high-quality relationships and support from parents and teachers, few studies have examined the collective contributions of adults' warm involvement or the processes by which support from both parents and teachers shapes students' engagement. According to the self-system process model of motivational development, warm involvement from key social partners fosters students' sense of relatedness, competence, and autonomy, (Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology, Vol. 23: Self processes in development, 1991, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL; "Theory and Research in Education," 2009, 7, 133), which subsequently fuels their engagement with academic tasks and challenges ("Journal of Educational Psychology," 2003, 95, 148). Aims: The current study sought to examine whether a sense of relatedness, competence, or autonomy could explain the relation between parents' and teachers' warm involvement and changes in students' academic engagement across a school year. Sample: Data was drawn from 1011 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Method: Students reported on adult warm involvement, self-system processes, and engagement in the fall and spring of a single school year. Results Structural equation models demonstrated that parent and teacher warm involvement each uniquely, positively, and indirectly predicted changes in students' academic engagement through a combination of students' sense of relatedness, competence, and autonomy, though these patterns differed slightly across adults. Conclusions: Implications for optimizing students' academic engagement are discussed, including the need for intervention efforts focused on both parents and teachers and students' self-system processes.

Background: Science in the Learning Gardens (henceforth, SciLG) program was designed to address two well-documented, inter-related educational problems: under-representation in science of students from racial and ethnic minority groups and inadequacies of curriculum and pedagogy to address their cultural and motivational needs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciLG is a partnership between Portland Public Schools and Portland State University. The sixth- through eighth-grade SciLG curriculum aligns with Next Generation Science Standards and uses school gardens as the milieu for learning. This provides the context to investigate factors that support success of a diverse student population using the motivational framework of self-determination theory. Results: This study reports results from 113 students and three science teachers from two low-income urban middle schools participating in SciLG. Longitudinal data collected in spring of sixth grade in 2015 and fall of seventh grade in 2015 for the same set of students included a measure of students' overall motivational experiences in the garden (that combined their reports of relatedness, competence, autonomy, and engagement and teacher-reports of re-engagement in garden-based learning activities) to predict four science outcomes: engagement, learning, science grades, and science identity. Findings: suggest that garden-based activities show promise for supporting students' engagement and learning in science classes and in fostering students' interest in pursuing science long-term. Conclusions: As concern for social justice is growing based on the underachievement of students from minority groups, resurgence of the school garden movement over the last several decades provides an opportunity to tip the scales by engaging students in authentic, real-world learning of science and cultivating their interests in science with holistic garden-based learning. This study highlights the role of students' views of themselves as competent, related, and autonomous in the garden, as well as their engagement and re-engagement in the garden, as potential pathways by which garden-based science activities can shape science motivation, learning, and academic identity in science. Findings also suggest that the motivational model based on self-determination theory can be useful in identifying some of the "active ingredients"--in pedagogy, curriculum, and social relationships--that engage students in these garden-integrated science learning activities.

This study focused on the joint effects of teachers and peer groups as predictors of change in students' engagement during the first year of middle school, when the importance of peer relationships normatively increases and the quality of teacher-student relationships typically declines. To explore cumulative and contextualized joint effects, the study utilized 3 sources of information about an entire cohort of 366 sixth graders in a small town: Peer groups were identified using sociocognitive mapping; students reported on teacher involvement; and teachers reported on each student's engagement. Consistent with models of cumulative effects, peer group engagement and teacher involvement each uniquely predicted changes in students' engagement. Consistent with contextualized models suggesting differential susceptibility, peer group engagement was a more pronounced predictor of changes in engagement for students who experienced relatively low involvement from teachers. These peer effects were positive or negative depending on the engagement versus disaffection of each student's peer group. Person-centered analyses also revealed cumulative and contextualized effects. Most engaged were students who experienced support from both social partners; steepest engagement declines were found when students affiliated with disaffected peers and experienced teachers as relatively uninvolved. High teacher involvement partially protected students from the motivational costs of affiliating with disaffected peers, and belonging to engaged peer groups partially buffered students' engagement from the effects of low teacher involvement. These findings suggest that, although peer groups and teachers are each important individually, a complete understanding of their contributions to students' engagement requires the examination of their joint effects.

As part of long-standing efforts to promote undergraduates' success in science, researchers have investigated the instructional strategies and motivational factors that promote student learning and persistence in science coursework and majors. This study aimed to create a set of brief measures that educators and researchers can use as tools to examine the undergraduate motivational experience in science classes. To identify key motivational processes, we drew on self-determination theory (SDT), which holds that students have fundamental needs--to feel competent, related, and autonomous--that fuel their intrinsic motivation. When educational experiences meet these needs, students engage more energetically and learn more, cumulatively contributing to a positive identity as a scientist. Based on information provided by 1013 students from 8 classes in biology, chemistry, and physics, we constructed conceptually focused and psychometrically sound survey measures of three sets of motivational factors: (1) students' appraisals of their own "competence," "autonomy," and "relatedness"; (2) the quality of students' behavioural and emotional "engagement" in academic work; and (3) students' emerging "identities as scientists," including their "science identity," "purpose in science," and "science career plans." Using an iterative confirmatory process, we tested short item sets for unidimensionality and internal consistency, and then cross-validated them. Tests of measurement invariance showed that scales were generally comparable across disciplines. Most importantly, scales and final course grades showed correlations consistent with predictions from SDT. These measures may provide a window on the student motivational experience for educators, researchers, and interventionists who aim to improve the quality of undergraduate science teaching and learning.

Attachment theorists have described the parent-child attachment relationship as a foundation for the emergence and development of children's capacity for emotion regulation and coping with stress. The purpose of this review was to summarize the existing research addressing this issue. We identified 23 studies that employed validated assessments of attachment, which were not based on self-report questionnaires, and separated the summary into findings for toddlers/preschool, children, and adolescents. Although most associations were weak and only a minority of the multiple possible associations tested was supported in each study, all studies (but one) reported at least one significant association between attachment and emotion regulation or coping. The evidence pointed to the regulatory and coping problems of toddlers showing signs of ambivalent attachment or the benefits of secure (relative to insecure) attachment for toddlers, children, and adolescents. Toddlers who showed signs of avoidant attachment relied more on self-related regulation (or less social-oriented regulation and coping), but it was not clear whether these responses were maladaptive. There was little information available regarding associations of ambivalent attachment with school-age children's or adolescents' emotion regulation. There were also few studies that assessed disorganized attachment.

Students perform better in school to the extent they are able to engage fully, cope adaptively, and bounce back from obstacles and setbacks in their academic work. These three processes, which studies suggest are positively inter-connected, may comprise a self-sustaining system that enables "motivational resilience." Using self-determination theory to frame hypotheses about such a motivational system, this study examined (1) whether a set of personal factors (self-perceptions of relatedness, competence, and autonomy), interpersonal resources (perceptions of teacher warmth, structure, and autonomy support), and emotional reactivity predicted changes in motivational resilience over the school year; (2) whether motivational resilience in turn predicted improvements in students' achievement and also fed back to increases in their personal and interpersonal resources; and (3) whether teacher support could shift established motivational patterns. A latent path model depicting these processes showed a good fit with self-report data from 1,020 students in Grades 3 through 6 collected in fall and spring of the same school year (including achievement data from a random subset, n = 365). Multiple regressions predicting changes from fall to spring refined the proposed model. Moreover, teacher support was crucial: Students who began the year with at-risk profiles, but also experienced high teacher support, ended the year on par with low-risk students; whereas students who began with resilient profiles but experienced low levels of teacher support ended the year at-risk. Discussion focused on identifying levers for intervention and the essential role teacher support plays in these dynamics.