Schools can boost academic achievement in adolescent students by adding education of resilience and well-being into student projects.
New survey has revealed a striking difference in how boys and girls experience their early years in the classroom.
Girls report significantly higher levels of well-being and school enjoyment compared to boys, according to research led by Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The study was published in the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.(1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Robust children: exploring engagement with academic subjects, well-being and psychological safety in schoolchildren aged 6-9 years in Norway
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The research analyzed 1,620 children aged 6 to 9, and identified the key drivers of early childhood education and academic achievement. The study focused on three aspects namely, social-emotional bonds, physical safety, and a supportive classroom environment.
The study proves that student happiness is built on psychological safety, showing a direct link when children feel safe and happy with the school engagement.(2✔ ✔Trusted Source
Ignition project in Iceland: Exploring well-being, safety, enjoyment and perceived competence in school subjects in children from 6 to 9 years of age
Go to source) Traditional schools often favor social-emotional bonds and literacy, which triggers ‘happiness hormones’ (dopamine) more easily in girls.
School engagement grows with a strong teacher-student bond. Behavioral engagement keeps kids attending regularly, while cognitive engagement boosts their grades. Both are key to academic success!(3✔ ✔Trusted Source
Exploring School Engagement and Academic Outcomes Over Time: The Role of Contextual Factors in Chile
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Conversely, boys often thrive through kinesthetic learning (tactile learning) and physical activity. To bridge this gap, schools must foster subjective well-being and academic achievement in both male and female children. (4✔ ✔Trusted Source
The Role of Resilience and Psychological Well-Being in School Engagement and Perceived Academic Performance: An Exploratory Model to Improve Academic Achievement
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By integrating passion projects and more movement into the day, we can build the resilience students need to succeed as they grow.
Analyzing the Link Between Physical Safety and Student Well-being
The correlation is strongest between the question of whether you are safe in school and safe during recess. The lowest correlation is between whether you have friends to be with at school and how much you like your class.
Well-being and safety were measured by the researchers on a new scale that they developed themselves. They call the scale “Well-being and perceived safety in school scale.”
“It can be said that school is better suited for girls. This may have biological causes, among other things,” says Sigmundsson. Dopamine is a hormone that is somewhat inaccurately called the “happiness hormone”. It is secreted by the body when we feel good.
“We know that girls get more dopamine activity through social relationships, being together. Boys get more dopamine through self-centred behaviour. Boys also have higher testosterone levels so they have more need for activity. Long school days, sitting still, does not suit boys,” he said.
Experts Advocate for Increased Physical Activity and Passion Classes to School Kids
In a previous article, Hermundur described a project in Iceland where the researchers included extra physical activity in addition to a passion project to improve well-being in the classroom.
“My advice is more physical activity and passion class every day in school,” says Sigmundsson.
That will increase the well-being of all students, he says. There are also gender differences in how much the students like subjects and how well they think they perform.
Reading and science: Girls generally score higher than boys, both in how much they like the subjects and how well they think they perform.
Mathematics: There is no difference in how much boys and girls like the subject. But boys think they are best.
Physical education: Boys like the subject best, but there is no difference in how well girls and boys think they perform.
Fostering Subjective Well-being Paves Way for High Academic Achievement
Students who like reading and those who like physical education otherwise seem to be completely different groups of children.
“We only find a weak correlation between feeling good about reading and physical education,” Sigmundsson said. We found a strong connection between liking subjects and doing well.
In addition, the researchers talked to the children about how much they liked the subjects and compared the answer to how the students actually performed in these subjects. The researchers had a questionnaire for this, while the school conducted the survey.
“Here we found a strong connection between liking subjects and doing well. This was true for in reading, maths, science and physical education,” says Sigmundsson.
Reference:
- Robust children: exploring engagement with academic subjects, well-being and psychological safety in schoolchildren aged 6–9 years in Norway – (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2025.2586675)
- Ignition project in Iceland: Exploring well-being, safety, enjoyment and perceived competence in school subjects in children from 6 to 9 years of age – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825009679)
- Exploring School Engagement and Academic Outcomes Over Time: The Role of Contextual Factors in Chile – (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pits.23538)
- The Role of Resilience and Psychological Well-Being in School Engagement and Perceived Academic Performance: An Exploratory Model to Improve Academic Achievement – (https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/62703)
Source-Eurekalert