A growing body of research in developmental psychology suggests that youth who grow up in high-achieving contexts tend to report higher rates of internalizing and externalizing problems compared to national norms, with females being identified as being the most vulnerable for such problem behaviors (Luthar et al., 2013; Luthar et al., 2020a). These findings have led developmentalists and policy researchers to increasingly identify high-achieving schools as among the most high-risk environments for youth (Geisz & Nakashian, 2018; National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine, 2019). However, empirical research on this group of “at risk” youth is limited. Most of what we know about how the high-achieving environment impacts youth mental health has focused on individualistic-oriented, Western societies, such as the United States (Luthar et al., 2020). Thus, it is unclear if existing theoretical models can be generalized to collectivistic-oriented, non-Western settings, such as Singapore.

The proposed project is a 3-year multi-informant, multi-method longitudinal research study that addresses this gap in the literature by enhancing our understanding of (1) how the socio-contextual factors embedded in the lives of adolescent students in high-achieving girls’ schools contribute to the pressures they experience, (2) whom these pressures impact the most; and (3) how we can optimize the mental health of these students in the Singapore context.

Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study will (1) describe the concurrent and longitudinal associations among the problem behaviors, academic competence, and the socio-contextual risks experienced by students attending high-achieving girls’ schools in Singapore; (2) examine the extent to which these associations between socio-contextual risk factors and the students’ problem behaviors are moderated by the students’ individual attributes and the quality of parent-child relationships; (3) explore the extent to which current school policies and programs support the well-being of students and teachers in high-achieving girls’ schools, and how they can be enhanced to optimize the unique mental health and related learning needs of these students.

Findings from the proposed project will critically contribute to our theoretical understanding of risk and resilience for this unique group of students, and provide a first step towards translational research that informs the development of interventions, programs, and policies that target the specific socioemotional and educational needs of these students.