Although it is widely believed that attendance is directly and positively related to academic achievement, the literature presents mixed findings. Moreover, there is a paucity of research on the potential role of engagement, particularly student participation, in explaining this relation. The present study investigated whether in-class participation mediated the relation between attendance and academic achievement, particularly in the context of a small American liberal arts college. Students' final cumulative exam scores were used as an unconfounded outcome measure for students' learning success (i.e., academic achievement). Our results demonstrated a significant indirect effect of attendance on academic performance through participation, with a point estimate of .08 (SE ϭ .02, 95% CI [.06, .12]). Notably, the direct effect of attendance on academic performance became nonsignificant (B ϭ .03), t(.71), p ϭ .48, when controlling for participation, suggesting a strong mediation effect. These results suggest that students' in-class participation mediates the positive relation between attendance and academic achievement reported in the literature. Although caution should be taken when generalizing these results, as the data were collected in a particular educational context, our results offer potential implications for course instructors. The implications include designing courses and assessment schemes, as well as adopting active learning approaches, to encourage students' in-class participation.
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