For many young people, starting high school can be a surreal experience as they navigate new environments, unfamiliar faces, and greater academic expectations. However, this often-daunting transition can also trigger a sustained decline in student wellbeing, new research shows.
The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, analysed more than 104,000 wellbeing records collected through the South Australian Well-being and Engagement Collection census between 2019 and 2025.
Tracking more than 20,000 South Australian students as they moved into high school, researchers from Adelaide University found wellbeing fell across every area measured – from happiness and optimism to perseverance, emotional regulation and life satisfaction – while sadness and worry climbed.
The findings are likely to concern both educators and parents, with the study showing the negative effects can linger for more than two years after the transition. Girls and students in remote areas experienced the sharpest declines.
Crucially, researchers found the drop in wellbeing was tied to the school transition itself – not simply the normal developmental changes associated with adolescence. This challenges the long-held belief that poorer wellbeing is a simply a natural part of the teenage years.
Researchers said the findings highlight the need to rethink how schools support students transitioning into high school, particularly as many programs focus heavily on the first few weeks or months of secondary school.
A major wellbeing transition, not just an administrative step
Lead researcher and PhD candidate Adelaide University’s Mason Zhou said the research suggests the transition itself is a major driver of these wellbeing declines.
“Schools should recognise that the move to secondary school is a major wellbeing transition, not just an administrative step. Rather than viewing this period only as a time of risk, we should also see it as a valuable opportunity to strengthen students’ wellbeing,” Zhou told The Educator.
“Support should therefore extend well beyond orientation week and continue throughout the early secondary years.”
The research also recommended that schools raise awareness among parents, teachers, and the wider school community to ensure young people are better supported during, and after, their transition to secondary education.
“Although the transition to secondary school is a major life event, its impact on wellbeing is still not fully recognised. Schools should therefore provide education and guidance for teachers and parents, while also ensuring that students receive sustained support throughout the early secondary years.”
Student voice crucial during high school transition
Co-researcher Adelaide University’s Professor Dot Dumuid said cognitive engagement and perseverance – which reflect students’ willingness to invest effort, persist through challenges and remain academically motivated – were among the domains most negatively affected by the transition to secondary school.
“For educators, the most effective supports are unlikely to be one off orientation programmes. Given that the impact of transition can persist well beyond the first year, support should be understood as an ongoing developmental process rather than a single event,” Professor Dumuid told The Educator.
“Practically, this means embedding sustained structures throughout the early secondary years, including regular wellbeing check ins, explicit teaching of self-regulation and goal setting skills and classroom practices that foster academic belonging and psychological safety.”
Professor Dumuid said one of the strongest protective factors schools can provide is access to a consistent, trusted adult, whether a home group teacher, mentor, counsellor or wellbeing coordinator, who knows the student well enough to recognise when engagement, confidence or behaviour begins to shift.
“When students feel genuinely known and supported by at least one adult within the school environment, they are more likely to remain engaged during periods of academic or social difficulty,” she said. “Importantly, schools should also listen closely to students themselves.”
Professor Dumuid said young people navigating transition often have the clearest insight into what supports are effective and where gaps remain.
“Creating structured opportunities for student voice through surveys, focus groups, mentoring conversations or informal classroom discussions may reveal barriers to engagement that quantitative data alone cannot capture.”
Vulnerable students face very different wellbeing challenges
With female students and students in remote areas found to be especially vulnerable during the transition period, the researchers say school leaders should be paying much closer attention to these groups.
“Support should be more targeted for students who are most vulnerable, especially girls,” Zhou said. “Principals should not rely solely on general transition programs for all students.
Instead, said Zhou, leaders should provide tailored support for girls, such as safe spaces to discuss stress and confidence, peer mentoring, stronger teacher–student relationships, and early responses when students show signs of anxiety, reduced belonging, or loss of motivation.
Professor Dumuid said the findings suggest that school leaders may underestimate how differently some groups experience transition, particularly female students and those living in remote areas.
“Female students often report relatively strong wellbeing in primary school, yet this advantage appears to reverse during secondary schooling,” she said.
“As a result, girls may appear outwardly compliant or academically capable while quietly experiencing declining wellbeing, increased anxiety, reduced social belonging or heightened peer comparison.”
For school leaders, this highlights the importance of looking beyond academic achievement alone when assessing adjustment to secondary school, said Professor Dumuid.
“Changes in friendship dynamics, withdrawal from activities, perfectionism or increased social sensitivity may be early indicators of disengagement,” she said.
“Safe and trusted channels for student voice are especially important for girls, who may not openly communicate distress unless strong relational supports are already in place. Again, the presence of a consistent adult relationship within the school can be highly protective.”
For students in remote areas, geographic isolation may compound the disruption associated with school transition, said Professor Dumuid.
“Reduced access to peer networks, extracurricular opportunities, wellbeing services and stable staffing can intensify feelings of disconnection over time,” she said.
“Importantly, the study found that wellbeing for remote students often continued to decline after other groups had begun to recover, suggesting that their needs may emerge more gradually and persist longer than schools anticipate.”
Professor Dumuid said targeted mentoring, stronger home school partnerships, continuity of relationships and accessible digitally delivered supports are likely to be particularly important for this group.
“Critically, remote students themselves should be included in shaping these responses,” she said. “Their lived experiences of isolation, belonging and transition provide insights that cannot be fully understood through administrative data alone.”