Life Satisfaction and Student Engagement in Adolescents

Abstract

Situated within a positive psychology perspective, this study explored linkages between adolescent students' positive subjective well-being and their levels of engagement in schooling. Specifically, using structural equation modeling techniques, we evaluated the nature and directionality of longitudinal relationships between life satisfaction and student engagement variables. It was hypothesized that adolescents' life satisfaction and student engagement variables would show bidirectional relationships. To test this hypothesis, 779 students (53% female, 62% Caucasian) in a Southeastern US middle school completed a measure of global life satisfaction and measures of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement at two time points, 5 months apart. A statistically significant bidirectional relationship between life satisfaction and cognitive engagement was found; however, non-significant relationships were found between life satisfaction and emotional and behavioral student engagement. The findings provide important evidence of the role of early adolescents' life satisfaction in their engagement in schooling during the important transition grades between elementary and high school. The findings also help extend the positive psychology perspective to the relatively neglected context of education.

Quality of life in children: A critical examination of concepts, approaches, issues, and future directions

“…Although the research base is small, there are now a few short-term (5-12 months) longitudinal studies demonstrating moderate stability of life satisfaction in youth (Lyons, Huebner, & Hills, in press). Moreover, lower levels of life satisfaction in adolescents predict important outcomes such as increases in peer relational victimization and lack of prosocial experiences (Martin, Huebner, & Valois, 2008), school disengagement (Lewis, Huebner, Malone, & Valois, 2011), and behavior problems (Lyons, Otis, Huebner & Hills, 2013). Such information should bolster arguments for the usefulness of collection of SWB data, including for example, in large-scale monitoring efforts as discussed above.…”

The Role of Perceived Stress and Self-Efficacy in Young People’s Life Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study

“…Life satisfaction features prominently in a growing body of literature in the social sciences in relation to the psychological and social consequences of educational experiences (Keller et al 2014;Lewis et al 2011;Tolan and Larsen 2014). Life satisfaction is an expression of how an individual judges the quality of his or her life.…”

School Racial Climate and the Academic Achievement of African American High School Students: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

“…These engagement indicators are considered particularly important for adolescents during the secondary school years because they correspond to the developmental needs of adolescents for competency, autonomy, and relatedness in school (Fredricks et al, 2004). Indeed, many scholars have posited that the patterns of engagement across these three dimensions have long-term effects on students' academic achievement (Fredricks et al, 2004) and current research has provided evidence for the need to assess the differentiated role of these three dimensions of school engagement (e.g., Lewis, Huebner, Malone & Valois, 2011;Wang & Eccles, 2012). For the current investigation, behavioral engagement was conceptualized as attentiveness and compliance, emotional engagement as school belonging and school values, and cognitive engagement as cognitive strategy use and self-regulated learning.…”