Introduction
The review of the scientific literature shows that there are close relationships between perceived school well-being and many other factors. However, very few data has been collected on children’s feelings when they enter in primary school (Ladd, Buhs, & Seid, 2000). Similarly, not much research has been done about children with special needs. Yet, a link between perceived school well-being and children’s attention difficulties seems relevant because children’s and adolescents’ attention is increasingly fragile and limited (Guillaume, 2018). Thus, this research project aims to expand knowledge on the field of school well-being, taking into account the perceived well-being of children without attention difficulties and children with attention difficulties, who are are susceptibles to live difficult experiences at school. Indeed, their adaptation to school is precarious (Purper-Ouakil et al., 2006).
At school, students’ perceived well-being refers to the level of satisfaction with the various experiences they have at school (Huebner, Ash & Laughlin, 2001). Two types of measures, unidimensional and multidimensional, are used to assess subjective well-being at school (Florin & Guimard, 2017). Multidimensional scales are used to assess satisfaction in different areas of children’s school lives (Florin & Guimard, 2017).
My thesis pursues the following three main objectives :
- The first objective is to study perceived school well-being at a school level where it has been poorly studied (Grand Section and Preparatory Course).
- The second objective is to analyse the inter-individual differences in school well-being in GS and CP between children without attentional difficulties and children with attentional difficulties, with a particular focus on the parity relationships of students, as well as their relationship with their teacher.
- The third objective is to study differences in perceived general life satisfaction between children with attention difficulties and children without attention difficulties.
My assumptions were that :
- The overall life satisfaction score for children without attention difficulties will be significantly higher than for children with attention difficulties.
- The perceived school well-being score of children without attention difficulties will be significantly higher than that of children with attention difficulties.
- The score in the “satisfaction of parity relations” dimension of the BE-scol will be significantly higher for children without attention difficulties than that of children with attention difficulties.
- We assume that on the BE-scol items, relating to the satisfaction of the teacher relationship, the results of children without attention difficulties will be significantly higher than those of children with attention difficulties.
Methodology
The following tools are used :
- The questionnaire to measure general life satisfaction (Coudronnière, Bacro, Guimard & Muller, 2017)
- The BE-scol 5-7 (Jacquin, Galharret & Guimard, 2019), which provides a quantitative and multidimensionnal measure of students’ well-being at school.
- The Q-EM (Florin, Guimard & Nocus, 2002), which allowed the identification of children with attention difficulties by their teachers.
These questionnaires were administered to 151 students. This research is organized around two groups of children. On the one hand, a group of 122 students without attention difficulties, including 46 girls and 76 boys. On the other hand, a second group of 29 students with attention difficulties, including 17 girls and 12 boys. Among the total sample of these children, 57 children were enrolled in GS and 94 children were enrolled in CP. The recruitment of children was done in collaboration with teachers from seven schools in Loire-Atlantique.
Results
Student T’s were used to test each of our hypotheses :
The results show that our first three hypotheses are validated. The scores of students without attention difficulties are significantly higher than those of students with attention difficulties, in terms of general life satisfaction (p =.002), perceived well-being at school (p =.006) and satisfaction with parity relations (p =.001).
But, in disagreement with our last hypothesis, the results of children without attention difficulties, on items related to the teacher relationship, are not significantly higher than those of children with attention difficulties.
Key words :
- scholar well-being : bien-être scolaire
- attention difficulties : difficultés attentionnelles
- perceived well-being : bien-être perçu
- parity relations : relations paritaires
- teacher relationship : relation à l’enseignant
Ressources :
Guillaume, F. (2018). Eduquer l’attention. Paris, ESF sciences humaines. ISBN : 9782710137061
Huebner, E. S., Ash, C. & Laughlin, J. E. (2001). Social Indicators Research, 55 (2), 167–183. doi:10.1023/a1010939912548
Florin, A. & Guimard, P. (2017). La qualité de vie à l’école. Paris. Cnesco.
Purper-Ouakil, D., Wohl, M., Cortese, S., Michel, G., & Mouren, M.-C. (2006). Le trouble déficitaire de l’attention–hyperactivité (TDAH) de l’enfant et de l’adolescent. Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique, 164(1), 63 72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amp.2005.11.003
Coudronnière, C., Bacro, F., Guimard, P., & Muller, J.-B. (2018). Validation of a French adaptation of the Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale in its abbreviated form, for 5- to 11-year-old children with and without intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 43(4), 407 420. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2017.1285012
Jacquin, Galharret, Guimard (2019, en cours de publication). BE-scol 5-7.
Florin, A., Guimard, P. & Nocus, I. (2002). Les évaluations des enseignants et la prédiction des compétences langagières de leurs élèves : études longitudinales à l’école maternelle et à l’école élémentaire, Le langage et l’homme, 2, p. 175-190.