Exploration of Longitudinal Changes and Influencing Factors on School Adaptation in School Level Transition: Focusing on the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study (GEPS)

This study classified the subtypes of school adaptation based on the developmental characteristics of students in the elementary, middle, and high school transition period and verified the longitudinal changes of the group and factors influencing it. To this end, a latent profile analysis was conducted using data from the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh years of the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study. The class attitude, degree of class understanding, learning self-efficacy, relationship with friends, and relationship with teachers were used as index variables to classify students’ types of school adaptation. The following results were obtained: At the time of elementary school 6, three groups were classified: “high adaptation,” “intermediate adaptation,” and “low adaptation.” At the time of middle school, the following types were derived: “low learning/high relationship” and “very low learning/low relationship,” which showed similar or lower scores in terms of learning, but showed higher or similar scores in terms of relationships with friends and teachers and were divided into five groups. At the time of middle school 3rd and high school 1, five groups were derived as at the time of middle school 1. Moreover, when looking at the longitudinal changes in the type of school adaptation, the rate of maintaining the same group in the middle to high school transition period was higher than that in the elementary to middle school transition period. Depending on the characteristics of the previous point in each transition period, the variables influencing the transition of the subsequent point in time were different. Based on the results, the implications for school adaptation at each transition period were presented.