Defense Date
2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Education
First Advisor
Christine Lee Bae
Abstract
Statement of Problem
How do we guide students through school while supporting their emotional and psychological health? This question lies at the heart of contemporary educational psychology research, as growing evidence demonstrates that students’ academic achievement and psychological well-being are deeply intertwined with their experiences in learning environments (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Edmondson & Lei, 2014; Gopalan & Brady, 2020; Song et al., 2024; Spencer, 1995; Walton & Cohen, 2011). Decades of scholarship affirm that students’ academic achievement and psychological well-being are deeply intertwined with how they experience schools, classrooms, peers, teachers, and institutional structures (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Edmondson & Lei, 2014; Gopalan & Brady, 2020; Song et al., 2024; Spencer, 1995; Walton & Cohen, 2011). Yet, educational research and practice often treat learning and well-being as parallel concerns rather than as mutually constitutive processes.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory provides a useful framework for understanding this relationship. Bandura writes that behavior emerges through reciprocal interactions among individuals, their actions, and the environment (Bandura, 1986, 1997, 2001). Students' beliefs about themselves, their social identities, and their perceptions of interpersonal risk all shape how they engage with academic challenges. At the same time, classrooms and institutions send powerful messages about who belongs, whose knowledge is valued, what kinds of participation are safe.
This dissertation builds from the premise that students’ academic and psychological outcomes are shaped through these reciprocal processes. Learning environments can support agency, connection, and adaptive coping, but they can also intensify stress when students experience marginalization, identity threat, low belonging, or fear of negative evaluation. Current evidence shows that students who feel psychologically safe and affirmed are more likely to persist, collaborate, seek help, and thrive academically (Boitet et al., 2024; de Lisser et al., 2024; McClintock et al., 2023; Mori et al., 2021). However, more work is needed to understand how students experience these conditions across different developmental and institutional contexts.
This dissertation addresses that gap by examining three related dimensions of learning environments: identity, psychological safety, and discourse. Across the three manuscripts, I ask how students make meaning of themselves and their environments, how those environments support or constrain psychological well-being, and how students use available cultural and communicative resources to participate in learning. Together, the manuscripts offer a developmental and sociocognitive account of how students’ emotional, psychological, and academic experiences become intertwined in educational settings.
The Three Manuscripts
This three-paper dissertation examines how individual well-being is shaped within learning environments. Grounded in identity theory, this work advances a multidimensional conceptualization of learning that centers students’ lived experiences and prioritizes well-being.
The first manuscript presents a systematic literature review of 30 U.S.-based studies investigating how student identity shapes the relationship between academic stress and mental health outcomes among K–12 students. Findings indicated that identity functions as both a protective and risk factor. When students experience affirmation and strong academic self-concept, they are more likely to interpret stress as manageable, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Conversely, identity misrecognition, marginalization, and performance-contingent self-worth amplify stress and contribute to adverse mental health outcomes. Developmental differences further shape these dynamics, with increasing complexity in identity processes across grade levels.
The second manuscript focuses on the development and psychometric testing of a psychological safety scale within health professions education. In this study, we conceptualized psychological safety as a learner-centered construct reflecting the extent to which individuals feel able to take interpersonal risks and ask questions in their learning environments without fear of negative consequences. We collected validity and reliability evidence such that the resulting scale provides a tested tool for assessing psychological safety in learning environments.
In the third manuscript, I examined digital discourse as a set of semiotic resources that students use in classroom interactions. Using qualitative, multimodal discourse analysis, I found that students frequently use digital discourse for socioemotional practices like constructing identity and building relationships, while teachers are more likely to leverage these resources for disciplinary meaning-making. These findings highlight both the developmental significance of digital discourse and its underutilization for academic learning.
Collectively, this dissertation reframes learning environments as dynamic contexts where students’ identities, self-beliefs, relationships, and opportunities for agency converge to shape well-being. The central contribution of this work is the argument that emotionally and psychologically supportive learning environments are not separate from academic learning; they are foundational to it. By grounding this dissertation in social cognitive theory, I emphasize that students are active agents in their own development, but that agency is always exercised within environments that can either expand or constrain what students believe is possible. This work contributes theoretical and empirical insights that can inform more responsive, affirming, and psychologically supportive educational practices.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2026