Understanding children’s primary-secondary school transitions experiences and factors associated with them

Recent research suggests that primary-secondary school transitions can be problematic, with a negative impact on academic outcomes, attitudes towards certain subjects, subject-specific self-efficacy scores, psychological wellbeing.

However, few studies have analysed robust, longitudinal datasets with large sample sizes. To fill these gaps, we undertook secondary analysis of a large,
longitudinal dataset collected for the study Growing Up in Scotland (GUS). The study aimed to understand children’s positive and negative primary-secondary transition experiences and the factors that can lead to these experiences. The analysis focused on data from 2,559 children, recruited in 2005 when they were aged 10 months, and their parents/carers who provided data on all items used to
assess transition experiences. Data analysed was collected through face-to-face interviews at two time points: the penultimate year of primary school and the first year of secondary school. To assess transitions experiences, indicators from previous literature, recorded at both time points, were used to construct a measure to indicate positive, moderate, or negative experiences. Then bivariate
analyses were conducted to assess factors associated with different transitions experiences.

The findings suggested a complex picture of children’s transitions experiences and factors that lead to them, which confirmed some findings of previous research, but also contradicted many. For example, it was the first large-scale, contemporaneous, longitudinal study that was able to indicate that only 22% of children experienced a negative transition, compared with 36% of children who experienced a positive transition, and 42% of children, a moderately positive transition experience.