Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Psychosocial Adjustment Resources and Achievement: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis of Students and Schools

Positive psychosocial adjustment is considered critical to adaptive student development and academic growth. Theories of positive youth development argue that psychosocial adjustment is a form of thriving and can be understood via multiple academic indicators, including achievement. To better understand the factors that support students’ psychosocial adjustment, the present investigation took a resource-based approach, examining intrapersonal (i.e., coping) and interpersonal (i.e., parent support, school belonging) resources. The present investigation used multilevel latent profile analysis to identify how resource levels differed by student groups and whether these differences were associated with divergent achievement outcomes at both the student and school levels-something that prior variable-centered research has been unable to capture. The present investigation examined data from the 2018 Australian PISA cohort (N = 10,997, clustered in 662 schools). Results of the single-level LPA indicated that there were five distinct resource profiles. Students in the Multi-Resourced and Intra-Oriented Resources profiles had the highest levels of achievement, indicating a preponderance of intrapersonal resources may be critical to achievement. Results of the multilevel LPA indicated that there were two distinct school profiles: Supportive versus Unsupportive Adjustment School Climate profiles. The Supportive Adjustment School Climate profile was characterized by a higher proportion of Multi-Resourced, and Intra-Oriented Resources student profiles and had higher school-average achievement. Taken together, findings indicate that teacher and schools may consider implementing programs that specifically focus on building students’ intrapersonal resources (i.e., coping). Additionally, policymakers may consider how to better support schools in their implementation of evidence-based programs that support intrapersonal resources