School engagement of high school students : Gender and age differences

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.