Participants

Between 2005 and 2007, 131 junior high school students experiencing academic difficulty (n = 65) or success (n = 66) participated in the baseline phase of this study. The age of this original sample was 11.44 years (SD = 0.62) and 54% were females. The two academic performance groups did not differ by sex, X²(1) = 0.61, p > 0.05, but those in academic difficulty were older, t(129) = 3.91, p < 0.01, and more likely to be behind in their schooling relative to their age X²(1) = 37.82, p < 0.01. Starting in 2017, 104 participants from the original sample were recontacted for the present study, and 100 accepted to participate (average follow-up duration 11.26 years, SD = 0.84, range 10–13 years; average participant age = 23.25 years, SD = 0.93, range 21–26 years).