School Foci and Their Potential Ramifications in Urban High Schools

The study examined the relationship among students’ focus in urban schools and three educationally relevant psychological factors: school engagement, achievement goals, and possible future self. A 1-year study at two urban high schools with a total of 212 participants suggested that academically focused students are more highly engaged with mastery-approach goals, whereas students with a social focus had less optimal engagement and more performance goal orientations. Both academic and social focus indicated strongest relationships with academic future self and social future self, respectively