Role Strains and the Transition to Middle School

Abstract

The present longitudinal study responds to a need for new perspectives and research tools for studying school transition stress by identifying changes in student role strains and assessing sex differences in strain changes during the transition from elementary school to a sixth-through eighth-grade middle school Findings, consistent with predictions, include (a) students did not experience more strain in the team-taught middle school program than in elementary school, (b) boys experienced more strains in elementary school than did girls but were not more bothered by the strains, and (c) boys exhibited relatively greater declines in the number and magnitude of strains during the transition to middle school than did girls. The role strain approach promises to be a useful tool for identifying strains that may affect early adolescents' adjustments to school transitions. This type of research also may help practitioners construct school environments that maximize opportunities for human development.

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