Yi Ding

• Ding, Yi (2026). Academic resilience in mathematics and science: Gender and subject patterns across 47 education systems in TIMSS 2023. Large-scale Assessments in Education. 14. doi: 10.1186/s40536-026-00311-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Academic resilience refers to the ability of socioeconomically disadvantaged students to achieve high levels of academic performance despite adversity. This concept highlights students who succeed against the odds and provides insight into how education systems can better support equity and excellence. Drawing on data from TIMSS 2023 across 47 education systems, this study examines resilience in mathematics and science, with particular attention to subject- and gender-specific patterns. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are identified as those in the bottom quartile of home educational resources distribution within each education system. Within this group, resilience students are identified using two commonly applied criteria: a fixed threshold using the TIMSS High International Benchmarks of 550 points, and a relative threshold identifying students who achieve in the top quartile of the national achievement distribution. The findings show that resilience patterns are partly definition-dependent, and underline the importance of examining resilience separately by subject and gender. Threshold-based indicators should be interpreted as descriptive measures of achievement among disadvantaged students rather than as comprehensive indicators of adaptive capacity or education-system effectiveness.

• Kahraman, Nurcan; Teig, Nani & Ding, Yi (2026). Profiles of social and emotional skills in adolescents: The role of demographic backgrounds, school climate and academic achievement. British Journal of Educational Psychology. ISSN 0007-0998. doi: 10.1111/bjep.70111. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Social and emotional skills (SES) are key predictors of students' academic success and well-being, yet how these skills cluster and vary across student groups remains underexplored in non-Western contexts. Aims This study identified distinct SES profiles among Turkish adolescents and examined which demographic characteristics and school climate factors are associated with these profiles, as well as their links to achievement in reading, mathematics and science. Sample The analyses used nationally representative data from 7250 15-year-old students in Türkiye participating in PISA 2022. Methods Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted using students' self-reported SES indicators. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine predictors of profile membership, and achievement differences across profiles were tested using the Bolck–Croon–Hagenaars (BCH) method with pooled Wald chi-square tests. Results Five distinct SES profiles were identified: Empathic but Overwhelmed, Withdrawn and At-Risk, Average Majority, Assertive Explorers and Compassionate Collaborators. Gender and socioeconomic status were significant predictors: girls were more likely to belong to empathy- and collaboration-oriented profiles, while students from advantaged families were overrepresented in adaptive groups. Immigration-related variables showed limited significant relations. Strong teacher–student relationships and a sense of belonging were linked to higher SES profiles. The Assertive Explorers and Compassionate Collaborators achieved the highest scores across all subjects, whereas the Withdrawn and At-Risk group had the lowest. Conclusions The findings demonstrate that adolescents' SES clusters into distinct, context-sensitive configurations that shape their academic performance. Tailored educational strategies that foster self-regulation, perseverance and a sense of belonging may enhance both emotional well-being and learning outcomes.

• Ding, Yi; Klapp, Alli & Hansen, Kajsa Yang (2024). The importance of mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy for mathematics achievement: A comparison between public and independent schools in Sweden. Educational Psychology. ISSN 0144-3410. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2024.2410217. Full text in Research Archive
• Hansen, Kajsa Yang; Radišić, Jelena; Ding, Yi & Liu, Xin (2022). Contextual effects on students’ achievement and academic self-concept in the Nordic and Chinese educational systems. Large-scale Assessments in Education. doi: 10.1186/s40536-022-00133-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background The current study investigates school contextual effects on students’ academic self-concept and achievement, that is, peer socioeconomic effect and big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), in four Nordic education systems (i.e., Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and selected Chinese education systems (Hong Kong and Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang). The two school contextual effects are studied simultaneously to negate the confounding effects of student and school socioeconomic status (SES), academic self-concept and academic achievement. The study focuses on the following research questions: Are there differences in the between-school variation in school SES composition, academic self-concept and reading literacy across the Nordic and selected Chinese education systems? What are the sizes of peer SES and BFLPE in the Nordic and Chinese education systems? Are there any differences that can be observed between the 2000 and 2018 data for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in the first two questions for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and Hong Kong? Methods Using PISA 2000 and 2018 data from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Hong Kong and Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (in 2018 only), a multiple-group two-level structural equation modelling was applied to estimate the school contextual effect. Results The current study indicated that school academic and socioeconomic segregation intensified over the two decades in most of the studied countries. This finding lays the groundwork for understanding the two schools’ contextual effects. School SES compositions positively affected students’ academic achievement, while average school achievement negatively affected students’ academic self-concept. Given that students’ academic and socioeconomic composition has become more homogeneous within schools, the contextual effects were more pronounced. However, variations across diverse education systems were also notable. Conclusions The current study adds evidence of the school contextual effects regarding the peer SES effects and robustness of the BFLPE, considering the nested structure of the data and diverse cultural milieu. We argue that these diversities reflect the varying extent to which educational reforms were introduced in different countries, here as oriented to marketisation, privatisation and choice. These reform actions have changed the composition of students at schools and school culture, which moulds individual students’ cognitive and noncognitive development.

• Ding, Yi; Hansen, Kajsa Yang & Klapp, Alli (2022). Testing measurement invariance of mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy in PISA using MGCFA and the alignment method. European Journal of Psychology of Education (EJPE). ISSN 0256-2928. doi: 10.1007/s10212-022-00623-y. Full text in Research Archive

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• Ding, Yi (2024). The self in the school context: Mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy in PISA. Stema Specialtryck AB. ISSN 9789179631826. Full text in Research Archive

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