Middle school can negatively affect self-esteem, academic behavior, and achievement due to increased stress, decreased performance, and behavior problems. Physical changes, peer pressure, and less individual attention from teachers contribute to this. Some school districts are eliminating middle schools due to these issues.
The effects of middle school on student self-esteem, academic behavior, academic achievement, and subsequent life adjustments have all been well documented. These transition years from grades 5-9, depending on the individual school, show that there is increased stress, decreased academic performance, and increased behavior problems, especially in the freshman year. This is not surprising to the many people who have found their experiences in middle school unfortunate or difficult.
Many, though certainly not all, people have bad memories of the middle school experience, and there may be a number of reasons why these experiences seem common. The age range of children entering middle school, usually around 12 to 14 years old, is one of the biggest physical changes, due to the growth of the body and the onset of puberty. As any parent can attest, a child entering puberty isn’t necessarily the easiest person to deal with in the family or in social settings. Hormonal spikes and shifts, as well as heightened body awareness and perhaps discomfort with the changing body, can easily translate into less than perfect behavior in the school environment, both toward teachers and, more commonly, toward peers.
In fact, children tend to organize themselves into peer groups in their middle school years, and students who look somewhat different are often not easily accepted by their peers. Bullying is more common and more difficult to eradicate from junior high schools due to less supervision in the school environment. Students right now, despite zero tolerance policies, may be less likely to report bullying behavior for fear of recriminations.
Also, especially in that first year, students are also under the stress of a big transition. In fact, studies have definitely shown that sixth graders who enter grade school and elementary school students tend to do better in math than kids who transition into middle school at this point. The need to keep track of lessons, dealing with multiple teachers, and being held more accountable for actions can all negatively contribute to a student’s ability to learn.
Additionally, the average elementary school student comes from a classroom of no more than 40 students, usually with one teacher. Once in middle school, the student moves to multiple classrooms where each teacher may have 150 students or more. This means that despite the best effort on the part of the teachers, not all students are as well known by their instructors. This can result in a feeling of isolation in any child.
In essence, then there are several important stressors common to the middle school environment:
Physical changes.
Dramatic transition from elementary school environment.
Greater emotional, behavioral, and academic demands.
Less individual attention from teachers.
Although each individual responds in different ways to stress, higher levels of stress tend to correlate with a negative response and, for the most part, teachers and parents should rate this child as highly stressed.
Behaviors that we would much rather our children avoid such as sexual activity and drug and alcohol use become more common in middle school. Children this age may not become sexually active or use controlled substances illegally, but they most likely know children who engage in these behaviors. Older students in the school setting may also contribute to this negative peer effect as the incidence of drug use and sexual activity increases each year during adolescence.
It makes sense then that even when any single child may be delightful and wonderful on their own, in a highly pressured environment with so many stressors, they may respond by acting negatively towards peers, having low grades, and becoming more emotionally struggling at home. and scholastic. This translates into a difficult and negative time for many students, and explains the many of us who have bad memories of these years.
Because so much research exists on this topic, some school districts have started eliminating middle schools. Studies show that students are better able to make the transition to a wider school setting as high school freshmen than they are as fifth, sixth or seventh graders. However, it should be noted that people in K-5 backgrounds often report similar emotional turmoil, especially around peer relationships, to those reported by students in fifth through seventh grade.
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