@conference{
author = "Bogićević, Dragana and Popović-Ćitić, Branislava and Bukvić-Branković, Lidija and Trajković, Marija and Kovačević-Lepojević, Marina",
year = "2023",
abstract = "School or student engagement is widely recognized as a multidimensional construct that
encompasses three aspects of engagement – cognitive, behavioral and emotional. Research
suggests that school engagement is associated with multiple students outcomes, including
academic achievement, school completion, and social-emotional adjustment. Therefore, the
aim of this study is to assess the engagement of high school students and to examine differences
in the level of engagement by gender and age so that we can determine which students are at
greater risk for various negative outcomes. Data on students’ engagement were collected using
the Delaware Student Engagement Scale (four-point Likert-type scale). The results of the
confirmatory factor analysis did not yield three separate factors, but instead showed that the
items of the behavioral and cognitive engagement subscales were best represented by one
factor. Thus, the scale consists of only two subscales: cognitive/behavioral engagement (8
items) and emotional engagement (4 items). The sample consisted of 860 students (59.6%
female) from Belgrade secondary schools, aged from 15 to 19 (M =16.38, SD = 1.05). The
results show that students are engaged to a considerable extent at the cognitive/behavioral level
(M = 3.22, SD = 0.66) and to a lesser extent at the emotional level (M = 2.85, SD = 0.91). When
looking at the total scores on the cognitive/behavioral engagement subscale, statistically
significant difference in the level of engagement by gender were found, t(786) = 2.29, p = <
0.05, d = 0.17, indicating a slightly higher engagement of female students, while no such
differences were found on the emotional engagement subscale, t(798) = 1.67, p = .10, d = 0.12.
In addition, a weak negative correlation was found between student age and level of
engagement on the cognitive/behavioral (r = -.15, p < .001) and emotional engagement
subscales (r = -.22, p < .001). In summary, the results of this study showed that high school
students’ engagement is at middle level, with girls being slightly more engaged in
cognitive/behavioral aspects and younger students generally more engaged compared to older
ones. This knowledge is is important from the perspective of prevention science and
strengthening protective factors in the school environment, such as student engagement, that
can contribute to positive developmental outcomes of students.",
publisher = "Beograd : Filozofski fakultet",
journal = "Empirical studies in psychology",
title = "School engagement of high school students : Gender and age differences",
pages = "89",
volume = "29",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_ipir_929"
}