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Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology

Article published in Journal of Youth and Adolescence

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Journalcover des Journal of Youth and Adolescence und daneben ein Porträt von Prof. Dr. Birgit Heppt © 2025 Springer Nature & Birgit Heppt
The publication deals with the relationship between a discriminatory climate and school adjustment among ethnically marginalized youth.

The publication “Discriminatory Climate and School Adjustment in Ethnically Minoritized Adolescents and Majority Adolescents: An Investigation of the Mediating Role of Teaching Quality” by Birgit Heppt, Miriam Schwarzenthal and Jan Scharf investigates how discriminatory beliefs and behaviors of teachers, which lead to a discriminatory environment in schools, negatively affect students' adjustment. For their study, the researchers analyzed PISA data from Germany (2018) from ninth-grade students of various ethnic groups. The results show that students from highly stigmatized groups perceive a more pronounced discriminatory climate in schools. Furthermore, the findings suggest that such a climate is associated with poorer academic performance and adjustment, such as  sense of belonging. Overall, the study clearly indicates that a discriminatory school climate adversely affects the educational outcomes of adolescents both directly and indirectly through teachers' instructional behavior.