The Reciprocal Links between School Engagement, Youth Problem Behaviors, and School Dropout during Adolescence

By Ming-Te Wang, Jennifer Fredricks. Child Development, 2013

754 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Drawing on the self-system model, this study conceptualized school engagement as a multidimensional construct, including behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, and examined whether changes in the three types of school engagement related to changes in problem behaviors from 7th through 11th grade. In addition, a transactional model of reciprocal relations between school engagement and problem behaviors was tested to predict school dropout. Data were collected on 1,272 youth from an ethnically and economically diverse county (58% African American, 36% European American; 51% females). Results indicated that adolescents who had declines in behavioral and emotional engagement with school tended to engage in increased delinquency and substance use over time. There were bidirectional associations between behavioral and emotional engagement in school and youth problem behaviors over time. Finally, lower behavioral and emotional engagement and greater problem behaviors predicted greater likelihood of dropping out of school.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c64a855456b6da225eb275f0d0b88455060d5ce7

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Citations in the corpus

Determinants of classroom engagement: a prospective test based on self-determination theory (2018, background): “Disaffection with Learning measure to assess behavioural and emotional engagement; Wolters’ (2004) Metacognitive Strategies questionnaire on motivation, cognition, and achievement (adapted from Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie’s, 1993 Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) to assess co”
In Peer Matters, Teachers Matter: Peer Group Influences on Students’ Engagement Depend on Teacher Involvement (2017, background): “For example, students’ behavioral problems may underlie both declines in their academic motivation and in the quality of their relationships with teachers (e.g., Wang & Fredricks, 2014) and peers (Davidson et al., 2010).”
School Climate, Student Engagement, and Academic Achievement: A Latent Variable, Multilevel Multi-Informant Examination (2018, background): “During adolescence, students who become disengaged from school are more likely to exhibit problem behaviors such as substance use and delinquency and eventually drop out of school (Wang & Fredricks, 2014).”
The role of parent, classmate, and teacher support in student engagement: Evidence from Ghana (2017, background): “Since those early efforts, the field has made significant empirical strides to identify the protective role of student engagement when addressing challenges such as school drop out and risky behaviors (Archambault et al., 2009; Wang and Fredricks, 2014).”
Preparing for Life after High School: The Characteristics and Experiences of Youth in Special Education. Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012. Volume 1: Comparisons with Other Youth. Executive Summary. NCEE 2017-4017. (2017, background): “Research has found that school engagement is positively associated with academic performance, whereas disengagement is negatively associated with these outcomes (Finn, 1989; Noltemeyer et al., 2015; Wang & Fredricks, 2014).”
Classroom climate and children’s academic and psychological wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2020, background): “Likewise, when students feel they can achieve, they are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior (Hoffmann, Erickson, & Spence, 2013) or drop out of school (Quiroga, Janosz, Bisset, & Morin, 2013; Wang & Fredricks, 2014).”
Academic Engagement: An Overview of Its Definitions, Dimensions, and Major Conceptualisations (2016, neutral): “…Schaufeli, & Salanova, 2011; Janosz, Archambault, Morizot, & Pagani, 2008; Mo & Singh, 2008; Phan, 2014a, 2014c; Phan & Ngu, 2014a; Salmela-Aro, Tolvanen, & Nurmi, 2009; Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2014; Vasalampi, Salmela-Aro, & Nurmi, 2009; Wang & Fredricks, 2014; Wang, Willett, & Eccles, 2011).”