Transition To Middle School Summary

This summary is regarding article “Source of Stress and Support in Children's Transition to Middle School: An Empirical Analysis” by Elias, M.M., Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 1985, vol 14 No.2 112-118.

Middle school students deal with stress issues as they transition from elementary school; these students are exposed to a new educational system. The academic structure is and can be overwhelming for the students; changes in childhood friendships are lost, peer pressure, teachers, school assignments and dealing with the new principal and vice principals of the school.

Method: The article focus on the stressor that child encounter in the transition to middle school it outlines the challenges presented to the administrators, teachers, and students. The middle school students in the central New Jersey county population in 600,000 and the method use to address these issues were sent to superintendents from 19 school districts which included special educators, principals, and vice principals a questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed and questions were assessed in a community of 15,000 multiethnic and predominately blue collar assessment given to 158 6th graders (80 boys and 78 girls) about 4 weeks after their entry in middle school. The main conflict was adult authority figures, peers, combined with missing old friendships. Other factors are power, conflict and coping.

Students were asked to rate the extend to which each problematic for them (i.e., no problem, small, moderate, or large). Administrators use the same scale, however, were asked to estimate the percentage of children affected by the problem to indicate the time(s) of the year of greatest severity (i.e., beginning, middle or