TRANSITION IN THE FINAL YEARS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: INTEGRATIVE REVIEW ON THE LITERATURE

ABSTRACT

The theme of transition in Elementary School is of interest to development researchers, who seek to identify its effects on students’ intra- and interpersonal school adjustment. In order to map out the scientific production on the repercussions of the transition from the early to the late years of Elementary School on the students’ socio-emotional and academic development, an integrative literature review was carried out, from 2013 to June 2018, in the SciELO, PsycINFO, ERIC and Science Direct databases. Through inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 articles were incorporated and analyzed from the perspective of protection/risk to development. Most studies investigated protective/risk factors together, with a predominance of contextual protective factors. Positive outcomes stood out in the transition to the final years of elementary school. The risk/protection perspective proved to be relevant for the integration of results, showing that school transition is a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon.

Keywords:
school transition; integrative review; risk/protection factors

RESUMO

A transição escolar no Ensino Fundamental interessa a pesquisadores do desenvolvimento, que buscam identificar seus efeitos no ajustamento escolar, intra e interpessoal dos alunos. Com o objetivo de mapear a produção científica acerca das repercussões da transição escolar dos anos iniciais para finais do Ensino Fundamental sobre o desenvolvimento socioemocional e acadêmico dos estudantes, realizou-se revisão integrativa da literatura, desde 2013 a junho de 2018, nos bancos de dados SciELO, PsycINFO, ERIC e Science Direct. Mediante critérios de inclusão e exclusão foram incorporados e analisados na perspectiva de proteção/risco ao desenvolvimento 30 artigos. A maioria dos estudos investigou fatores de proteção/risco conjuntamente, com predominância de fatores protetivos contextuais. Os desfechos positivos se sobressaíram na transição para os anos finais do Ensino Fundamental. A perspectiva de risco/proteção se mostrou pertinente para integração dos resultados, evidenciando que a transição escolar é um fenômeno dinâmico e multifacetado.

Palavras-chave:
transição escolar; revisão integrativa; fatores de risco/proteção

RESUMEN

La transición escolar en la Enseñanza Básica interesa a investigadores del desarrollo, que buscan identificar sus efectos en el ajustamiento escolar, intra e interpersonal de los alumnos. Con el objetivo de mapear la producción científica acerca de las repercusiones de la transición escolar de los años iniciales para finales de la Enseñanza Básica sobre el desarrollo socioemocional y académico de los estudiantes, se realizó revisión integrativa de la literatura, desde 2013 a junio de 2018, en los bancos de datos SciELO, PsycINFO, ERIC y Science Direct. Por intermedio de criterios de inclusión y exclusión fueron incorporados y analizados en la perspectiva de protección/riesgo al desarrollo 30 artículos. Gran parte de los estudios investigó factores de protección/riesgo conjuntamente, con predominancia de factores de protección contextuales. Los resultados positivos se sobresalen en la transición a los años finales de la Enseñanza Básica. La perspectiva de riesgo/protección se mostró pertinente para integración de los resultados, evidenciando que la transición escolar es un fenómeno dinámico y multifacético.

Palabras clave:
transición escolar; revisión integrativa; factores de riesgo/protección

INTRODUCTION

Between the ages of ten and thirteen, approximately, students go through substantial physical and cognitive changes. Puberty, associated with the emergence of abstract thought, frequently coincides with changes in interpersonal relationships, a process that encompasses family and peers (Cassoni, Marturano, Fontaine, & Leme, 2020; Paula, Praci, Santos, Pereira, & Esper, 2018). While going through these changes, many teenagers also experience an important context change concerning their academic life - the transition from the first into the second cycle of Elementary School (ES).

According to Resolution no. 3, of August 3, 2005, in the Brazilian education system states that this transition takes place between the 5^th and the 6^th year and includes a whole set of interpersonal and academic changes. However, Coelho and Romão (2017) emphasize that such transition might not be the same in every country. For example, it happens earlier in Portugal, between the 4^th and the 5^th year. According to Lanson and Marcotte (2012), it takes a little longer to happen in Canada, between the 6^th and the 7^th year. School transition means moving from one integrated-content organization into another, more compartmentalized one (Eccles, 1999; Paula et al., 2018). The structure based on one or two teachers per class evolves into a system equipped with a whole team of teachers. Consequently, the relationship between students and teachers tends to become more impersonal, with fewer opportunities for the establishment of emotional bonds (Eccles, 1999; Paula et al., 2018). When students change schools during the time of transition, the social network established so far with classmates might be affected (Cassoni et al., 2020; Maia, Soares, & Leme, 2019; Eccles, 1999).

In view of these changes, which take place in the transition from the initial to the final years ES, national studies (Cassoni et al., 2020; Jovarini, Leme, & Correia-Zanini, 2018; Maia et al., 2019; Paula et al.,2018) and international studies (Coelho & Romão, 2017; Eccles, 1999; Lanson & Marcotte, 2012) tried to identify the effects of this experience in the students’ academic, personal, and interpersonal adjustment. Furthermore, the students’ previous conditions and family characteristics were investigated along with some properties of the transition itself as possible predictors of individual differences in the ways students handle the transition. In general, the literature has evidenced the fact that school transition causes more negative than positive effects (Symonds & Galton, 2014), which makes us wonder whether this moment of the academic trajectory might not by a factor of vulnerability for students. However, Cassoni et al. (2020) encountered challenges as well as psychosocial opportunities during the transition to the final years of elementary school in the Brazilian context. The authors investigated the impact of the transition from the 5^th to the 6^th year on academic performance, stress symptoms, social skills, self-concept, and satisfaction with life. Results evidenced a decrease in positive functioning indicators (social skills, self-concept, and satisfaction with life) and in the perception of parental support, while there was an increase in stress symptoms. However, additional analyses, which explored the properties of the context and of the transition, revealed results that were sometimes positive sometimes negative according to the group where the students were, which evidenced the complexity and nuances of the transition (Cassoni et al., 2020).

In this same direction, other national research works found out that the presence of psychosocial characteristics (for example, social skills, self-efficacy, and self-control) and access to context resources, such as the network of family and education social support, would theoretically be conditions for favorable outcomes of the transition experience (Jovarini et al., 2018; Maia & Soares, 2019). In this sense, it is possible to observe that school transition poses a challenge with its combination of risk and opportunity. It can be assessed by means of a few constructs of Positive Psychology, such as resilience processes, risk factors, and protection factors.

According to Wright, Masten, and Narayan (2013), risk factors are context aspects (poverty, mistreatment, and negative experiences) or individual aspects (stress symptoms and chronical diseases) related to a person, and might trigger negative results in the physical, behavioral, and psychosocial development. The protection factors are individual characteristics (hopes, beliefs, optimism, emotional regulation, and motivation to adapt) or context characteristics (promotion of positive development by the parents, parental protection factors) that decrease, mitigate, or avoid the impact of the risk factors, making it possible for individuals who are exposed to these risks to face adverse situations (Wright et al., 2013). Although school transition is a topic that has been researched for decades in the international context, with an emphasis on possible effects of the transition experience on development, only one review on school transition was found in the literature. Symonds and Galton (2014) investigated, in the period from 1966 to 2012, the implications of school transition in the socioemotional development of students (ages 10 to 14 years), considering the influence of school in educational engagement, self-concept, self-esteem, and mental health. They also investigated whether gender, family factors and ethnic characteristics acted as risk/protection factors in these processes. Most studies included in the review took place realized in the USA, with the application of multiple instruments (interviews, questionnaires, and observations), longitudinal method and pre and post-transition data collection. The findings of the review indicated that the transition, especially when it happens in combination with a change of schools, might intensify physical and emotional difficulties. The students that felt supported by classmates and teachers presented fewer depression symptoms, less anxiety and more self-esteem. The authors concluded that more research works are necessary in order to understand which variables are associated with diverse development trajectories during the transition.

Acquaintance with risk factors as well as with context and personal protection factors, during the transition into the final years of EF, might contribute to an identification of the aspects that make it difficult or favor the adaptation of students to the new school cycle, especially in Brazil, where there is a scarcity of research works on this moment of school trajectory (Cassoni et al., 2020). Thus, the present study aims at mapping out scientific production on school transition from the initial to the final years of Elementary School, based on the following research question: What are the repercussions of the transition on the students’ socioemotional and academic development? The present review was guided by the perspective of risk and protection (Wright et al., 2013). The authors understood that the information from the selected studies would make it possible to identify risk and protective factors, thus expanding the scientific basis for future investigations, interventions and public policies focusing the school transition to the final years of ES.

METHOD

This is an integrative review of the literature (Koller, Hohendorff, & Couto, 2014). The following study followed the recommendations of the international form for studies of systematic review and meta-analyses named Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA, 2009).

Procedures for gathering data

A survey on the articles was conducted from May to June of 2018. The researchers chose multi-disciplinarian portals that contemplated diverse areas of knowledge and aggregated national and international data sources of scientific quality: SciELO; PsycINFO; Educational Resources Information Center - ERIC, and Science Direct. Based on Symonds and Galton (2014), the used search words were: “school transition”. The descriptors were inserted in the search boxes for advanced search for “titles”, “abstracts”, and “key words”. The research included publications of national origin in the Portuguese, Spanish, French and English languages. According to the inclusion criteria, articles were supposed to be: (a) indexed empirical articles published in scientific journals; (b) published in the period from 2013 until June, 2018, contemplating the years that followed the review by Symonds and Galton (2014); (c) with a focus on the transition from the initial to the final years; and (d) based on themes that were connected to the objective of the study. The research excluded articles that were: (a) theoretical/reviews/instrument validations; (b) focused on other types of school transition. 1092 articles from the 2013 - June 2018 were identified according to Illustration 1. After removal of the duplicated articles (n=54) and application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the research removed articles that were not in accordance with established criteria (n=919), and 119 remained. After a complete reading of the research, 89 articles that did not answer the research question were excluded. After that, the research included in the review 30 articles that formed the corpus of the work to be analyzed.

Illustration 1
Flowchart of the selection of studies.

Data analysis

The selection of articles was realized by two independent judges, and the research employed a third judge when there was disagreement. Based on the defined corpus, a data bank was created with the Microsoft Office Access program in order to organize all the information. For assessing the research works, the following categories were created: (a) participants (gender, type of participants, and age); (b) methodology (outline and instrument); (c) personal protection factors, contextual factors, and both (personal and contextual); (d) personal risk factors, contextual factors, and both (personal and contextual); (e) results: positive outcomes; negative outcomes; both positive and negative

Categories (a) and (b) were quantitatively analyzed (percentage) and categories (c), (d) and (e) were assessed in a quantitative-qualitative way. Categories (c) and (d) were analyzed according to the definitions of Wright et al. (2013) for risk and protection factors. Category (e) was based on Ferreira and Patino (2017), and its positive outcome consists of a variable that is directly associated to better adaptation during transition, while the negative outcome is related to variables that hinder the process.

RESULTS

Characteristcs of the studies

Concerning the participants, most are composed of students (20 studies); followed by research works with students, parents, and teachers (4), students and parents (3) students and teachers (3). Both male and female students are represented in equivalent proportions. The age of the students is not mentioned in nine of the articles. In these cases, the authors only report the investigated year, with interval between the 4^th and the 12^th year. For the other ones, the focused average ages are 11 years (11 articles), 12 years (5) and 10 years (4).

When it comes to methodology, longitudinal studies prevail (24), some of them with only two data gatherings (9), one before and the other one after the school transition. For other cases, two or three data gatherings are realized during the same academic year (7^th year - after transition). There is a small number of investigations with three, five, seven, and nine years of monitoring. The other works have a transversal outline (6), including two assessments on interventions. Concerning the procedures for data gathering, most of the studies (23) uses combined techniques (interview/questionnaire/scales), three studies use only scales, three studies work with a focal group, and one study uses questionnaires.

Risk and protection factors associated with school transition

Table 1 presents the variables that were the focus of the study. Twenty articles assessed risk at protection variables simultaneously. Nine articles (Arens, Yeung, Craven, Watermann, & Hasselhorn, 2013; Gorard, Siddiqui, & See, 2015; Gregson, Tu, Erath, & Pettit, 2017; Kim, Oesterle, Catalano, & Hawkins, 2015; Oriol, Torres, Miranda, Bilbao, & Ortúzar, 2017; Poorthuis, Thomaes, Denissen, van Aken, & Castro, 2014; Sabatine, Lippold, & Kainz, 2017; Waters, Lester, & Cross, 2014; Zeng, Thomsen, Nayga Jr., & Rouse, 2016) investigated only protection factors and one article focuses exclusively on risk factors (Coelho & Romão, 2017).

Table 1
Focused variables: Personal Protection and Risk Factors, Contextual Factors, and Both.

Categories	Variables (N)	Total N (%)
Protection Factors
Personal	Academic performance/competence (n=4); physical self-concept/body image (n=3); physical coordination and competence (n=2); affection/emotional engagement (n=2); self-esteem (n=2); personality, conscientiousness, and agreeability. (n=1); cortisol (n=1).	15 (37,5%)
Contextual Factors	Social support by teachers and peers (n=5); satisfaction/school engagement (n=5); orientation/parental commitment/positive practices (n=3); income and maternal level of school education (n=3); relation of attachment with family and community (n=1).	17 (42,5%)
Both	Social skills; self-efficacy and orientation/ parental commitment (n=1); academic self-concept; relation/support by peers and school satisfaction (n=1); academic performance; body image; teacher support; classroom environment with a focus on orientation and innovation; pro-social behavior; school performance and positive parental practices (n=1); academic competence; reaching goals and attachment relations (n=1); pro-social commitment; social skills; reaching goals; beliefs; academic performance; relation of attachment to family/ community and connection/ engagement with school (n=1); well-being; support by friends; satisfaction with life/school and family support (n=1); academic competence and connection/engagement with school (n=1).	8 (20%)
Total		40
Risk Factors
Personal	General anxiety regarding school tasks (n=5); desmotivation/lack of effort (n=2); behavior/conduct problems (n=2); negative effect (n=1); depression symptoms (n=1); school preoccupations (n=1).	12 (48%)
Contextual	Negative life events and multiple transitions (n=3); income (n=2); disruptive behaviors by peers in the classroom (n=1); classroom environment with a focus on competition (n=1).	7 (28%)
Both	Puberty and classrooom environment focused on competition (n=1); puberty; hyperactivity; emotional symptoms; behavioral problems; negative parental parentes and problems with mates (n=1); ethnicity; age; delinquency; Family adversity and previous retention (n=1); chronic diseases; hyperactivity; obesity; special necessities and income (n=1); puberty and transition (n=1); anxiety; gender, ethnicity and type of school (n=1).	6 (24%)
Total		25

Concerning protection factors, most studies focus on contextual aspects (Ames, 2013; Bailey, Giles, & Rogers, 2015; Flamm & Grolnick, 2013; Forrest, Bevans, Riley, Crespo, & Louis, 2013; Lazarides, Gaspard, & Dicke, 2018; Madjar & Cohen-Malayev, 2016; Maltais, Duchesne, Ratelle, & Feng, 2017; Neal, Rice, Ng-Knight, Riglin, & Frederickson, 2016; Riglin, Frederickson, Shelton, & Rice, 2013; Sabatine et al., 2017; Shell, Gazelle, & Faldowski, 2014; Siddiqui, Gorard, & See, 2014; Waters et al., 2014; Zeng et al., 2016). The other ones investigate personal factors (Arens et al., 2013; Gorard et al., 2015; Metsäpelto et al., 2017; Poorthuis, Juvonen et al., 2014; Poorthuis et al., 2014; Spray, Warburton, & Stebbings, 2013; Zandstra, Ormel, Nederhof, Hoekstra, & Hartman, 2015). A small number of studies approaches both - personal and contextual (Becker et al., 2014; Bélanger & Marcotte, 2013; Gregson et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2015; Knight et al., 2016; Maltais, Duchesne, Ratelle, & Feng, 2015; Oriol et al., 2017; Pagani, Brière, & Janosz, 2017).

When it comes to risk factors, most studies assess personal variables (Becker et al., 2014; Lazarides et al., 2018; Maltais et al., 2015; Metsäpelto et al., 2017; Neal et al., 2016; Poorthuis, Juvonene et al., 2014; Riglin et al., 2013; Shell et al., 2014; Spray et al., 2013). And then, there are the studies that deal with contextual variables (Ames, 2013; Flamm & Grolnick, 2013; Madjar & Cohen-Malayev, 2016; Maltais et al., 2017; Siddiqui et al., 2014; Zandstra et al., 2015), followed by the studies that approach both personal and contextual risk factors (Bailey et al., 2015; Bélanger & Marcotte, 2013; Coelho & Romão, 2017; Forrest et al., 2013; Knight et al., 2016; Pagani et al., 2017).

Major outcomes identified in the studies

Table 2 presents the observed outcomes. It is possible to observe positive outcomes in over 60% of the studies (Ames, 2013; Arens et al., 2013; Bailey et al., 2015; Forrest et al., 2013; Gorard et al., 2015; Gregson et al., 2017; Knight et al., 2016; Lazarides et al., 2018; Madjar & Cohen-Malayev, 2016; Maltais et al., 2015; Maltais et al., 2017; Neal et al., 2016; Oriol et al., 2017; Poorthuis et al., 2014; Poorthuis, Juvonen et al., 2014; Siddiqui et al., 2014; Waters et al., 2014; Zandstra, 2015; Zeng et al., 2016). Seven studies detect negative outcomes (Bélanger & Marcotte, 2013; Coelho & Romão, 2017; Kim et al., 2015; Metsäpelto et al., 2017; Pagani et al., 2017; Sabatine et al., 2017; Shell et al., 2014). Finally, a small part of the investigations finds both positive and negative outcomes (Becker et al., 2014; Flamm & Grolnick, 2013; Riglin et al., 2013; Spray et al. 2013).

Table 2
Outcomes of the studies: Positive, Negative and Both

Outcomes	Variables (N)	N (%)
Positive Outcomes	Social support, acceptance by peers (n=4); school environment /engagement (n=4); academic performance/competence (n=4); self-concept, self-control, self-esteem, and self-confidence (n=4); well-being and mental health (n=2); reaching goals (n=1); social skills (n=1); decrease in the index of body mass (n=1).	21 (61,7%)
Negative Outcomes	Depression, anxiety, and negative self-perception (n=3); victimization and exclusion by peers (n=2); externalizing behavioral problems (n=2); decline in protection factors (n=1); school evasion (n=1).	9 (26,4%)
Positive and negative Outcomes	Academic self-concept; relations among peers; school satisfaction and academic anxiety (n=1); decline in self-concept and improvement in academic performance (n=1); control and perceived competence; depression and behavioral problems (n=1); school performance; connection with the school; depression symptoms; conduct problems; anxiety; anxiety regarding school tasks and school preoccupations (n=1)	4 (11,7%)
Total		34

Positive outcomes were organized into five groups: (1) support and acceptance by peers (Becker et al., 2014; Gregson et al., 2017; Oriol et al., 2017; Waters et al., 2014); (2) school environment and engagement (Bailey et al., 2015; Lazarides et al., 2018; Madjar & Cohen-Malayev, 2016; Poorthuis, Juvonen et al., 2014; Poorthuis et al., 2014; Riglin et al., 2013); (3) academic performance, competence, and adjustment, and reaching goals (Forrest et al., 2013; Gorard et al., 2015; Maltais et al., 2015; Maltais et al., 2017; Poorthuis et al., 2014; Sabatin et al., 2017; Spray et al., 2013); (4) personal characteristics such as well-being, self-concept, self-esteem, self-control, self-confidence, and social skills (Ames, 2013; Arens et al., 2013; Knight et al., 2016; Siddiqui et al., 2014) and (5) health - mental, physical, and interventions (Neal et al., 2016; Zandstra et al., 2015; Zeng et al., 2016). The negative outcomes were categorized according to: (1) depression, anxiety and negative self-perception (Becker et al., 2014; Bélanger & Marcotte, 2013; Coelho & Romão, 2017; Flamm & Grolnick, 2013; Riglin et al., 2013; Spray et al., 2013); (2) victimization, exclusion by peers and decline in protection factors (Kim et al., 2015; Shell et al., 2014); (3) externalizing behavioral problems and school evasion (Metsäpelto et al., 2017; Pagani et al., 2017).

DISCUSSION

The results found regarding the methodology used were similar to those of Symonds and Galton (2014), with mostly longitudinal studies, with collections before and after school transition, using multiple instruments (interviews, questionnaires and observations). Such findings denote the researchers’ concern to investigate the constructs in different ways. The review made it possible to highlight the diversity of variables focused on in the studies. The results indicated that the researches jointly investigated risk and protective factors, which influenced both school performance and the socio-emotional development of students. On the one hand, this suggests that scholars in the field have sought to understand school transition as a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon, whose effect goes beyond the impact on academic aspects, such as grades. On the other hand, it was noted that the articles analyzed presented a broad theoretical foundation, which may have influenced the design of the research. In any case, this study sought to analyze the investigations from the perspective of protection and risk to development (Ferreira & Patino, 2017; Wright et al., 2013) in order to integrate a certain epistemological and theoretical consistency in the assessment of the findings.

Regarding the protective factors associated with school transition, it appears that most articles analyzed contextual resources, allied or not to personal factors. Despite the academic and interpersonal challenges that exist in school transition, the contextual protective factors present in this period can mitigate and or even prevent the effects of risks (Wright et al., 2013). Thus, from the constructs of Positive Psychology, such as processes of resilience, risk and protection factors, understanding the processes and factors that provide social-emotional development in school transition can favor the construction of students’ skills and school practices to overcome of adversities in the institutions. In fact, Paula et al. (2018), highlight that school management can work with teachers and students’ families to provide reflections on the teaching-learning processes and the relational difficulties that arise during school transition, encouraging collective coping strategies.

The data showed that most risk factors were personal, with a focus on anxiety. During the change of school cycle, students need to adapt to new academic and relational demands, not always in the same environment they were used to (Eccles, 1999). Thus, in line with research carried out in the national context, the various changes, both academic and interpersonal, that occur in the passage to the 6th grade can increase the perception of school stressors and lead to an increase in anxiety and stress by the students (Cassoni et al., 2020; Jovarini et al., 2020). This may explain, in part, the interest of researchers in this variable. The main protective factors were contextual, with emphasis on social support from teachers and peers, as well as school engagement by students. In this sense, Maia, Soares and Leme (2019) found positive associations between the social skills of 6th grade students assessed by teachers and school grades.

Regarding the main outcomes identified in the studies, the results showed that most research revealed those interpreted as positive. Considering that the positive outcome infers a better adaptation in the transition and the negative outcome is related to variables that hinder this process (Ferreira & Patino, 2017), the review results indicated that research has advanced and the look at the individual has become broader. Such data suggest a break with the deficit perspective regarding the transition effects (Symonds & Galton, 2014), as this is not supported by data in most international studies included in this review. Thus, despite cultural differences between countries, the results of this research may contribute to future interventions focused on promoting the mental health of students going through the school transition in the Brazilian reality.

Overall, the review indicated that positive outcomes emerged when social support from family, friends and teachers was present in the school transition process. It can be assumed that the interpersonal relationships established in the contexts of school and family functioned as an instrumental and affective support network, triggering positive outcomes. In fact, the presence of affectionate friends, teachers and family members who use positive educational practices plays a role of help and support in moments considered critical, such as in school transition (Cassoni et al., 2020; Jovarini et al., 2018; Maia & Soares 2019).

When the focus was protection, contextual resources prevailed, whereas when the emphasis was on risk, the personal aspects were more evident. Therefore, the results of the review indicated that most of the studies, with a longitudinal design, included in their analysis both risk and protection, during the school transition to the final years of elementary school. Thus, this review addressed the guiding question “What are the repercussions of the school transition on the socio-emotional and academic development of students?”. It could be observed that school transition was more associated with positive than negative outcomes, possibly due to the theoretical-methodological strategy of balancing risk/protection, with an emphasis on resources present in the school and family context. These results are similar to the findings of studies carried out in the Brazilian reality, also focused on personal and contextual protective factors (Cassoni et al., 2020; Jovarini et al., 2020; Maia & Soares, 2019; Maia et al., 2019). Thus, this review, by carrying out a systematic reading from the perspective of risk/protection, constituted an important contribution to future studies, which could be promoted in the national context, since in Brazil there are different educational realities, contributing to different trajectories that arise in the school transition (Paula et al., 2018).

As a study limitation, the non-inclusion of theses, dissertations and book chapters in the searches is highlighted. The information obtained from these materials would contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of the topic, especially in the national context. Regarding the contributions of this research, its originality is highlighted, as there is a lack of Brazilian studies dealing with the transition to the 6th grade, and most investigations have prioritized the initial years of elementary school. Thus, it is necessary to have more research on this topic so that it is possible to know how the variables identified in international studies act in the Brazilian educational reality. Such findings may contribute to public policies to combat dropout and school dropout at the end of PE. Thus, based on the results achieved, the area’s agenda should invest in longitudinal research and interventions focused on promoting contextual protection factors. Different social actors, such as the school management team, teachers, students, and their families must be considered as informants and agents of change in the school space.

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• This paper was translated from Portuguese by Régis Lima.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  06 Dec 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  17 July 2019
• Accepted
  20 Nov 2020