Continuity and Change in Early School Engagement: Predictive of Children's Achievement Trajectories From First to Eighth Grade?

• Published in: Journal of educational psychology 2009-02, Vol.101 (1), p.190-206
• Main Authors: Ladd, Gary W, Dinella, Lisa M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gains; Age Differences; Attitude Measures; Biological and medical sciences; Changes; Classrooms; Cooperation; Educational psychology; Effects; Elementary School Students; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender Differences; Human; Learner Engagement; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Participation; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Revised); Prediction; Predictor Variables; Primary Education; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Questionnaires; Resistance (Psychology); School Attitudes; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Student Characteristics; Student Engagement; Student Participation; Wide Range Achievement Test
• ISSN: 0022-0663; 1939-2176
• DOI: 10.1037/a0013153

Premises about the effects of early engagement on achievement were investigated with 383 children who were followed from ages 5.5 to 13.5. Change and continuity in behavioral (cooperative-resistant classroom participation) and emotional (school liking-avoidance) engagement were assessed during Grades 1-3 and were examined within variable- and person-oriented analyses as antecedents of scholastic progress from Grades 1 to 8. Findings corroborated the premises that change as well as continuity in early school engagement is predictive of children's long-term scholastic growth. Compared to children who participated cooperatively in classrooms, those who became increasingly resistant across the primary grades displayed lesser scholastic growth. Among children who manifested enduring engagement patterns, those who exhibited a combination of higher behavioral and emotional engagement across the primary grades made greater academic progress than those who displayed lower levels of these two forms of engagement. Overall, the results of this investigation were consistent with the school engagement hypothesis and extend what is known about the predictive contributions of early school engagement to children's achievement.