School engagement and life satisfaction in Primary school students
Published:
Aug 23, 2024
Keywords:
School engagement School satisfaction Family satisfaction Confirmatory factor analysis Mediation
Abstract
Previous studies have examined school engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional) mainly through "deficit models of assessment" focusing on concepts such as school dropout, absenteeism, and academic performance. In the context of the present study, school engagement is approached through the lens of positive psychology and positive education, with the aim to highlight a new developmental perspective for empowering and enhancing children's abilities, as well as to expand educational goals to include actions and initiatives that promote students' well-being. The study involved 115 sixth-grade students (44.3% boys) attending private schools in Athens. Children were asked to complete the Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale for Students, the School Engagement Scale, and a self-designed demographic questionnaire, asking students to report their gender, date of birth, whether they have siblings, average performance in Mathematics and Language during the previous school year, as well as their parents' educational level. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the school engagement scale exhibited satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices. School engagement factors were positively correlated with all life satisfaction dimensions. The highest correlations were found between school satisfaction and emotional and behavioral engagement. A stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the statistical prediction of school satisfaction by school engagement indicators and demographic factors. School satisfaction was predicted by emotional engagement, cognitive engagement and gender. Demographic factors and school performance during the previous year did not contribute to predicting school satisfaction. A Structural Equation Model revealed that the latent variable of school engagement fully mediated the relationship between family satisfaction and school satisfaction. Bit is of high importance for both educators and education policymakers to incorporate actions in the curriculum and cross-curricular activities in order to promote social and emotional skills and interactions that would result in increased school engagement and school satisfaction.
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Tsouvelas, G., & Papoulidi, A. (2024). School engagement and life satisfaction in Primary school students. Hellenic Journal of Research in Education, 13(1), 148–168. https://doi.org/10.12681/hjre.36849
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