Each month, the open access team of the University of Groningen Library (UB) puts a recent open access article by UG authors in the spotlight. This publication is highlighted via social media and the library’s newsletter and website.

The article in the spotlight for the month of November 2021 is titled Long-Term Effects of Acceptance and Rejection by Parents and Peers on Educational Attainment: A Study from Pre-Adolescence to Early Adulthood, written by Sofie Lorijn, Maaike Engels, Mark Huisman and René Veenstra (all from the Sociology department at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences). 

Abstract

Acceptance and rejection by parents and peers play an important role in pre-adolescents’ educational outcomes. Prior research focused on either parents or peers, did not encompass effects into adulthood, or considered either acceptance or rejection. This study investigated the relation between parental and peer acceptance and rejection, and their interplay, in pre-adolescence and educational attainment in early adulthood. A sample of 2229 pre-adolescents (Mage T1 = 11.11, SD = 0.56; 50.7% girls) was followed to early adulthood (Mage T5 = 22.29, SD = 0.65). Ordinal logistic regression showed that pre-adolescents’ perceived parental acceptance was positively related to educational attainment in early adulthood, whereas peer rejection was negatively related, even when WISC score and socioeconomic status were considered. No interaction effects were found, revealing no “dual-hit effect” of being rejected by parents and peers, no “dual-miss effect” of being accepted by parents and peers, and no effects of acceptance in one context (i.e., parents or peers) buffering the negative effect of rejection in the other context. The findings underscore unique and long-term links of parental acceptance and peer rejection with early adults’ educational attainment, underlining the importance of not only peers but also parents in adolescence. These insights can be used in promoting long-term educational outcomes through relationships with parents and peers.

We asked first and corresponding author Sofie Lorijn a few questions about the article:

This article was published open access, was open access a deliberate choice?

Yes, we prefer to publish open access. Most journals in our field give the possibility to publish open access. This way we can reach a broader audience to share our results. It makes scientific articles more accessible for readers without access through a university. Especially for topics with a broader societal relevance this seems important. For instance, in our article we give practical implications for schools.

How does the Sociology department support or stimulate open science? 

The Sociology department prefers that researchers offer their article to journals with which Dutch universities already have a contract and where open access is free of charge. This was the case for our article. When researchers want to submit their article to a journal with publication costs [article processing charges], they have to write a request to the directors of the department. Only if that request has been approved, the Sociology department pays the costs. Sociological Science is a journal where the costs are reasonable ($ 600 for an article of 7,500 words), but some well-known open access journals, such as BMC and Frontiers are very expensive and ask $3000 for a publication. The department of Sociology is not willing to cover such high costs.

The data declaration in the article mentions that “TRAILS data are not freely accessible, but the desired variables can be requested by means of a publication plan." What were the motives for choosing to make the data 'open upon request'?

Indeed, I did not collect the TRAILS data myself. So I submitted a publication plan to use the data. My supervisor, René Veenstra, is part of the TRAILS management team. TRAILS has had a contract with DANS since 2012. It was decided to make the TRAILS data available to third parties with a delay of a few years. This means that metadata and additional documentation are available from DANS, but that the data itself needs to be requested from the TRAILS data manager. The reluctance to make the data fully open stems from the fact that TRAILS is an ongoing ('living') cohort, with a complex data and organizational structure, and from a sense of responsibility to prevent improper use of the data (data fishing). If the request to use the dataset is granted, researchers receive the data as soon as possible and free of charge.

Could you reflect on your experiences with open access and open science in general?

My experience with publishing open access was positive. We did not have to pay the journal additional fees because this was covered by the agreement of Dutch universities. I have noticed that it was easy to share my work because I could just send a link to the article. In my experience there is a lot of progress in open science over the past years, which I really applaud. I also believe there is still much to learn. I preregistered my second paper. When I presented the preliminary results last week, a discussion evolved on how extensive a preregistration should be .

This was your first published article as part of your PhD project, congratulations! What did you find most challenging about the writing and publication process? 

Thank you! I enjoyed writing and publishing the article. It was a challenge as it took a significant amount  of time and patience to finish the article. Writing a scientific article is a thorough process in which I had to incorporate feedback from my co-authors, colleagues in my research group (Social Development of Young People), colleagues at conferences, and peer reviewers. Thus, it took some time, but I am very proud of the result!

Useful links:

TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey): an ongoing, multidisciplinary research project on the psychological, social and physical development of adolescents and young adults.

Open access journal browser: search engine that can be used to check if a discount on the article processing charge (APC) is available for a specific journal. UG corresponding authors can publish with an APC discount (mostly 100%, so for free) in more than 12.000 journals! 

More information about preregistration can be found at the Center for Open Science, preregistration of your research can be done at the Open Science Framework (OSF).  

Citation:

Lorijn, S.J., Engels, M.C., Huisman, M. et al. Long-Term Effects of Acceptance and Rejection by Parents and Peers on Educational Attainment: A Study from Pre-Adolescence to Early Adulthood. J Youth Adolescence (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01506-z 

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