Abstract
Students’ engagement is known to be associated with academic success and to prevent school dropouts. While many studies have considered this variable when examining school trajectories, more research is needed to investigate the factors that may sustain and promote engagement in school, regarded as a multidimensional construct (affective vs. cognitive vs. behavioral engagement). In the present cross-sectional study, associations between students’ perceptions of school climate dimensions and their level of engagement were explored. The differential effects on these associations of sex and social background were also examined. Results from a sample of 955 high-school students showed that a model incorporating six dimensions of perceived school climate explained a large proportion of the variance in students’ engagement, especially affective engagement. The perceived climate of relations between teachers and students appeared to be highly predictive of students’ engagement. Analyses also revealed that the predictiveness of school climate factors for affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement varied slightly according to sex and social background. These results highlight important levers associated with students’ engagement in school.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.
Archambault, J., & Chouinard, R. (2009). Vers une gestion éducative de la classe. Montréal: Gaëtan Morin éditeur.
Archambault, I., & Janosz, M. (2007). L’engagement scolaire des garçons et des filles: Une analyse comparative des résultats de recherches empiriques. Revue de Psychoéducation, 36(1), 81–107.
Archambault, I., Janosz, M., Fallu, J.-S., & Pagani, L. S. (2009). Student engagement and its relationship with early high school dropout. Journal of Adolescence, 32(3), 651–670.
Archambault, I., Tardif-Grenier, K., Dupéré, V., Janosz, M., McAndrew, M., Pagani, L. S., et al. (2015). Comparative study of school engagement among immigrant and non-immigrant students from disadvantaged backgrounds: Contributions of the school environment and teaching practices (Research Report). Montreal: Fonds de recherche Société et Culture.
Bang, H. J., Suárez-Orozco, C., & O’Connor, E. (2011). Immigrant students’ homework: Ecological perspective on facilitators and impediments to task completion. American Journal of Education, 118(1), 25–55.
Bass, B. I., Cigularov, K. P., Chen, P. Y., Henry, K. L., Tomazic, R. G., & Li, Y. (2016). The effects of student violence against school employees on employee burnout and work engagement: The roles of perceived school un safety and transformational leadership. International Journal of Stress Management, 23, 318–336.
Baudelot, C., & Establet, R. (2011). Quoi de neuf chez les filles? Paris: Nathan.
Berliner, D. C. (2008). Letter to the President. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(3), 252–256.
Bernet, E., Karsenti, T., & Roy, N. (2014). Mesure de l’engagement scolaire. Engagement scolaire en milieu défavorisés: Traduction et validation exploratoire d’une échelle de mesure. Educational Journal of the University of Patras UNESCO Chair, 1(1), 20–33.
Berti, C., Molinari, L., & Speltini, G. (2010). Classroom justice and psychological engagement: Students’ and teachers’ representations. Social Psychology of Education, 13, 541–556.
Bishop, J. H., Bishop, M. & Bishop, M. M. (2003). Peer harassment: A weapon in the struggle for popularity and normative hegemony in American secondary schools (CAHRS Working Paper #03-19). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/38.
Blaya. C. (2010). Décrochages scolaires. L’école en difficulté. Bruxelles: De Boeck.
Bouffard, T., Vezeau, C., & Simard, G. (2006). Motivations pour apprendre à l’école primaire: Différences entre garçons et filles et selon les matières. Enfance, 58(4), 395–409.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1964). Les héritiers, les étudiants et leurs études. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.
Bourdieu, P., Passeron, J.-C., & Shattock, M. (1970). La reproduction: Eléments pour une théorie du système d’enseignement. Paris: Editions de Minuit.
Chouinard, R., Karsenti, T., & Roy, N. (2007). Relations among competence beliefs, utility value, achievement goals, and effort in mathematics. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77(3), 501–517.
Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., & Wylie, C. (2012). Handbook of research on student engagement. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.
Conchas, G. (2001). Structuring failure and success: Understanding the variability in Latino school engagement. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 475–505.
Connell, J. P., & Wellborn, J. G. (1991). Competence, autonomy, and relatedness: A motivational analysis of self-system processes. In M. R. Gunnar & L. A. Sroufe (Eds.), Self processes and development (pp. 43–77). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cornell, D., Shukla, K., & Konold, T. (2016). Authoritative school climate and student academic engagement, grades, and aspirations in middle and high schools. AERA Open, 2, 1–18.
Di Fabio, A., & Bartolini, C. (2009). The impact of organizational justice on job satisfaction and affective commitment in an Italian hospital. Psychologie du Travail et des Organisations, 15, 420–434.
Doucet, O., Simard, G., & Tremblay, M. (2008). L’effet médiateur du soutien et de la confiance dans la relation entre le leadership et l’engagement. Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations, 63(4), 625–647.
Estell, D. B., & Perdue, N. H. (2013). Social support and behavioral and affective school engagement: The effects of peers, parents, and teachers. Psychology in the Schools, 50(4), 325–339.
Fall, A.-M., & Roberts, G. (2012). High school dropouts: Interactions between social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and student dropout. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 787–798.
Fernández-Zabala, A., Goñi, E., Camino, I., & Zulaika, L. M. (2016). Family and school context in school engagement. European Journal of Education and Psychology, 9(2), 47–55.
Finn, J. D., & Rock, D. A. (1997). Academic success among students at risk for school failure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(2), 221–234.
Finn, J. D., & Zimmer, K. S. (2012). Student engagement: What is it? Why does it matter? In L. S. Christenson, L. A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 97–131). Boston, MA: Springer.
Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Liau, A. K., Guo, S., Powell, K. E., Atha, H., et al. (2003). Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence prevention program. Developmental Psychology, 39, 292–308.
Fortin, L., Royer, É., Potvin, P., Marcotte, D., & Yergeau, É. (2004). La prédiction du risque de décrochage scolaire au secondaire: Facteurs personnels, familiaux et scolaires. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 36(3), 219–231.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P., Friedel, J., & Paris, A. (2005). School engagement. In K. A. Moore & L. H. Lippman (Eds.), What do children need to flourish? Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of positive development (pp. 305–321). Boston, MA: Springer.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109.
Furrer, C., & Skinner, E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(1), 148–162.
Gage, N. A., Larson, A., Sugai, G., & Chafouleas, S. M. (2016). Student perceptions of school climate as predictors of office discipline referrals. American Educational Research Journal, 53(3), 492–515.
Goulet, M., Cantin, S., Archambault, I., & Vitaro, F. (2015). L’influence des amis sur l’engagement scolaire au secondaire: La popularité des élèves comme variable modératrice? Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 47(2), 141–152.
Hakanen, J. J., & Roodt, G. (2010). Using the job demands-resources model to predict engagement: Analysing a conceptual model. In A. B. Bakker & M. P. Leiter (Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 85–101). Hove: Psychology Press.
Hirschfield, P. J., & Gasper, J. (2011). The relationship between school engagement and delinquency in late childhood and early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(1), 3–22.
Hogekamp, Z., Blomster, J. K., Bursalioglu, A., Calin, M. C., Çetinçelik, M., Haastrup, L., et al. (2016). Examining the importance of the teachers’ emotional support for students’ social inclusion using the one-with-many design. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1014.
Hospel, V., Galand, B., & Janosz, M. (2016). Multidimensionality of behavioural engagement: Empirical support and implications. International Journal of Educational Research, 77, 37–49.
Janosz, M. (2000). L’abandon scolaire chez les adolescents: Perspective nord-américaine. VEI enjeux, 122, 105–127.
Janosz, M., Archambault, I., Morizot, J., & Pagani, L. S. (2008). School engagement trajectories and their differential predictive relations to dropout. Journal of Social Issues, 64(1), 21–40.
Janosz, M., & Bouthillier, C. (2007). Rapport de validation du Questionnaire sur l’Environnement Socioéducatif des écoles secondaires (QES-secondaire). Montreal: Groupe de recherche sur les environnements scolaires (GRES), University of Montreal.
Janosz, M., Georges, P., & Parent, S. (1998). L’environnement socioéducatif à l’école secondaire: Un modèle théorique pour guider l’évaluation du milieu. Revue canadienne de psycho-éducation, 27(2), 285–306.
Kaplan Toren, N., & Seginer, R. (2015). Classroom climate, parental educational involvement, and student school functioning in early adolescence: A longitudinal study. Social Psychology of Education, 18, 811–827.
Krapp, A. (2005). Basic needs and the development of interest and intrinsic motivational orientations. Learning and Instruction, 15(5), 381–395.
Lam, S., Wong, B. P., Yang, H., & Liu, Y. (2012). Understanding student engagement with a contextual model. In S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 403–419). Boston: Springer.
Lan, W., & Lanthier, R. (2003). Changes in students’ academic performance and perceptions of school and self before dropping out of schools. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 8(3), 309–332.
Lawson, M. A., & Masyn, K. E. (2015). Analyzing profiles, predictors, and consequences of student engagement dispositions. Journal of School Psychology, 53, 63–86.
Lee, E., Reynolds, K. J., Subasic, E., Bromhead, D., Lin, H., Marinov, V., et al. (2017). Development of a dual school climate and school identification measure-student (SCASIM-St). Contemporary Educational Psychology, 49, 91–106.
Li, Y., Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (2010). Personal and ecological assets and academic competence in early adolescence: The mediating role of school engagement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(7), 801–815.
Loukas, A., & Murphy, J. L. (2007). Middle school student perceptions of school climate: Examining protective functions on subsequent adjustment problems. Journal of School Psychology, 45, 293–309.
Loukas, A., Suzuki, R., & Horton, K. D. (2006). Examining school connectedness as a mediator of school climate effects. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 491–502.
Marks, H. M. (2000). Student engagement in instructional activity: Patterns in the elementary, middle, and high school years. American Educational Research Journal, 37(1), 153–184.
Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Nagengast, B., Trautwein, U., Morin, A. J. S., Abduljabbar, A. S., et al. (2012). Classroom climate and contextual effects: Conceptual and methodological issues in the evaluation of group-level effects. Educational Psychologist, 47(2), 106–124.
Martin, A. J. (2005). Exploring the effects of a youth enrichment program on academic motivation and engagement. Social Psychology of Education, 8, 179–206.
McCombs, B. L., & Pope, J. E. (1994). Motivating hard to reach students. Psychology in the classroom: A series on applied educational psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Mehta, S., Cornell, D., Fan, X., & Gregory, A. (2013). Bullying climate and school engagement in ninth grade students. Journal of School Health, 83, 45–52.
Millet, M., & Thin, D. (2005). Ruptures scolaires. L’école à l’épreuve de la question sociale. Paris: Presses Universitaire de France.
Ministry of National Education (2015). Repères et références statistiques sur les enseignements, la formation et la recherche. Retrieved from http://cache.media.education.gouv.fr/file/2015/67/6/depp_rers_2015_454676.pdf.
Negoita, G. (2016). The adolescence: Scholastic success and failure. European Review of Applied Sociology, 9, 35–47.
Noguera, P. (2010). A new vision for school reform. The change we need in education policy. Nation, 290(23), 11–18.
Phan, H. P. (2010). Students’ academic performance and various cognitive processes of learning: An integrative framework and empirical analysis. Educational Psychology, 30(3), 297–322.
Rathel, J., Drasgow, E., Brown, W., & Marshall, K. J. (2014). Increasing induction-level teachers’ positive-to-negative communication ratio and use of behavior-specific praise through e-mailed performance feedback and its effect on students’ task engagement. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 16(4), 219–233.
Régner, I., Loose, F., & Dumas, F. (2009). Students’ perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement: Consequences on achievement goals. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 24(2), 263–277.
Reio, T. G., & Sanders-Reio, J. (2011). Thinking about workplace engagement: Does supervisor and coworker incivility really matter? Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13, 462–478.
Ryan, R. M., Stiller, J. D., & Lynch, J. H. (1994). Representations of relationships to teachers, parents, and friends as predictors of academic motivation and self-esteem. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 14(2), 226–249.
Salanova, M., Agut, S., & Peiró, J. M. (2005). Linking organizational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: The mediation of service climate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1217–1227.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293–315.
Simard, G., Doucet, O., & Bernard, S. (2005). Pratiques en GRH et engagement des employés: Le rôle de la justice. Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations, 60(2), 296–319.
Strambler, M. J., & Weinstein, R. S. (2010). Psychological disengagement in elementary school among ethnic minority students. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31(2), 155–165.
Sugai, G., & Horner, R. (2006). A promising approach for expanding and sustaining school-wide positive behavior support. School Psychology Review, 35, 245–259.
Tucker, C. M., Zayco, R. A., Herman, K. C., Reinke, W. M., Trujillo, M., Carraway, K., et al. (2002). Teacher and child variables as predictors of academic engagement among low-income African American children. Psychology in the Schools, 39(4), 477–488.
Urdan, T., & Schoenfelder, E. (2006). Classroom effects on student motivation: Goal structures, social relationships, and competence beliefs. Journal of School Psychology, 44(5), 331–349.
Urdan, T., & Turner, J. C. (2005). Competence motivation in the classroom. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 297–317). New York: Guilford Press.
Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Tinga, F., & Ormel, J. (2010). Truancy in late elementary and early secondary education: The influence of social bonds and self-control–the TRAILS study. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 34(4), 302–310.
Virtanen, T. E., Lerkkanen, M.-K., Poikkeus, A.-M., & Kuorelahti, M. (2014). Student behavioral engagement as a mediator between teacher, family, and peer support and school truancy. Learning and Individual Differences, 36, 201–206.
Wang, M. (2009). School climate support for behavioral and psychological adjustment: Testing the mediating effect of social competence. School Psychology Quarterly, 24, 240–251.
Wang, M.-T., & Degol, J. L. (2016). School climate: A review of the construct, measurement, and impact on student outcomes. Educational Psychology Review, 28(2), 315–352.
Wang, M.-T., & Eccles, J. S. (2012). Social support matters: Longitudinal effects of social support on three dimensions of school engagement from middle to high school. Child Development, 83, 877–895.
Wang, M.-T., & Eccles, J. S. (2013). School context, achievement motivation, and academic engagement: A longitudinal study of school engagement using a multidimensional perspective. Learning and Instruction, 28, 12–23.
Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Chipuer, H. M., Hanisch, M., Creed, P. A., & McGregor, L. (2006). Relationships at school and stage-environment fit as resources for adolescent engagement and achievement. Journal of Adolescence, 29(6), 911–933.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fatou, N., Kubiszewski, V. Are perceived school climate dimensions predictive of students’ engagement?. Soc Psychol Educ 21, 427–446 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-017-9422-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-017-9422-x