Reasonable faith: Post-Enlightenment psychology, theology and Christian education

Student adjustment in school remains a key concern of educators, parents and students.  Often students fail at school not because they lack the intelligence or motivation to succeed, but because they fail to adjust to the demands of school in adaptive and productive ways.  Some of the most common adjustment concerns of students include:

1.  School-related concerns (i.e., academic problems, adjustment of university life),
2.  emotional distress (anxiety, depression, self-esteem, etc.),
3.  interpersonal/relationship concerns (assertiveness, dating, making friends, etc.)
4.  developmental issues (values, career, spiritual concerns, sexual identity/orientation, etc.),
5.  behavioral problems (eating, procrastination, study habits, substance abuse, etc.),
6.  environmental stressors (discrimination, sexual assault), and
7.  physical health problems (illness, pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, sleep, weight).

in this paper, we explore the roles of attachment and attribution theories in explaining student adjustment to school and to life in general.  Moreover, this paper shows how an integration of attachment and attribution theories provides a powerful account of sudents' adjustment to school in terms of their personal constructions of causal entities and relationships - and how these entities and relationships are developed in the context of students' relationships. This paper also develops a model that links attribution theory with attachment theory to provide a comprehensive model of intra- and inter-personal forces affecting student self-regulation and students' subsequent schooling and life outcomes.