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Personal and Ecological Assets and Academic Competence in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

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Abstract

Although the role of school engagement in influencing children’s academic competence has been recognized in past theory and research, how school engagement may mediate the relationships between ecological and personal resources and academic competence remains largely unknown. Using structural equation modeling procedures, the present study was aimed at examining the role of school engagement in mediating the associations between ecological and personal assets and academic competence. Data from 960 participants (45.6% boys) who took part in the Grades 5 and 6 assessments of the longitudinal, 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used. Evidence was found for a model positing two distinct school engagement components, Behavioral and Emotional, and for the role of these facets of school engagement in the relationships between developmental assets and later academic competence. Personal and ecological assets had indirect effects on later academic competence, via behavioral and emotional school engagement. Behavioral and emotional school engagement predicted academic competence differently. Emotional engagement was indirectly linked to academic competence, via behavioral engagement. Behavioral and emotional engagement also had different individual and contextual antecedents. Implications of the findings for evaluating the role of behavioral and/or emotional school engagement in academic competence and positive youth development are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Grade 5 academic competence was included to control for Year One competence. Its direct path to Grade 6 academic competence was estimated in each model.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based in part on a thesis submitted by the first author to Tufts University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.A. degree. This study was supported in part by a grant from the National 4-H Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Lincoln Filene Building, Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Yibing Li & Richard M. Lerner

  2. Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Jacqueline V. Lerner

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  1. Yibing Li
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Correspondence to Yibing Li.

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Li, Y., Lerner, J.V. & Lerner, R.M. Personal and Ecological Assets and Academic Competence in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Role of School Engagement. J Youth Adolescence 39, 801–815 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9535-4

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