Youth Transition to Upper Tracked Secondary School in Barcelona
A Longitudinal Analysis of Behavioural Engagement and Achievement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16928697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ona Valls (0000-0003-0680-925X, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author), Albert Sánchez-Gelabert (0000-0002-4135-6121, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), Rafael Merino (Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Applied Youth Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2204-9193 • E-ISSN: 2204-9207 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s43151-025-00193-y |
| OpenAlex | W7154099691 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 54 |
School tracking may influence school engagement and academic results, however, few studies have compared the evolution of engagement and achievement across different educational contexts. This study examines the relationship between academic achievement and behavioural school engagement during the transition to either the academic track or vocational track after compulsory education. Using a two-wave panel dataset of pupils from Barcelona ( n = 2056), we conducted a cross-lagged analysis to explore the interactions over time between self-reported marks and behavioural engagement. The findings indicate that tracking does not polarise pupils or foster anti-school attitudes and behaviours among those entering technical and vocational tracks. Notably, the results reveal an increase in both achievement and behavioural engagement, particularly among vocational track pupils. These findings contribute to the debate on the academic demands of post-compulsory education and the educational practices that encourage young people to remain in education beyond compulsory schooling
Academic achievement · Compulsory education · Track (disk drive · Tracking (education · Transition (genetics · Vocational education · Early Childhood Education and Development · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
Multiple Regression and Beyond
Social Relations in a Secondary School
Handbook of Research on Student Engagement
Student engagement with school
New Conceptual Frameworks for Student Engagement Research, Policy, and Practice
Teacher-student support, effortful engagement, and achievement
Student engagement and its relationship with early high school dropout
Measuring Student Relationships to School
Student Engagement
Peer exclusion and victimization
Toward an Understanding of Definitions and Measures of School Engagement and Related Terms
Sense of relatedness as a factor in children's academic engagement and performance.
Continuity and change in early school engagement
Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance
Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis
School Engagement
The role of engagement and academic behavioral skills on young students’ academic performance—A validation across four countries
Pathways Linking Education and Work
Political economy and young people’s transitions from education-to-work in the UK during and following the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns
Testing for Factorial Invariance in the Context of Construct Validation
Early Tracking and Social Inequality in Educational Attainment
School Engagement Trajectories and Their Differential Predictive Relations to Dropout
Development during adolescence
An Organizational Analysis of the Effects of Ability Grouping
The ethnic composition of schools and students’ problem behaviour in four European countries
The impact of school tracking on school misconduct
Raising the value of VET through qualification reform
Some Sociological Concomitants of Academic Streaming in a Grammar School
Effortless or less effort? Effects of tracks on students' engagement
Explaining individual differences in scholastic behaviour and achievement
The role of educational track in adolescents' school burnout
School Characteristics Related to Student Engagement
Représentations du devenir et reproduction sociale
Lower-track students' sense of academic futility
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |