A daily diary study on associations between school-based ethnic discrimination and school engagement

Abstract

Being the target of discriminatory actions due to ethnicity can lead ethnic minority students to disengage from school. Yet research on the links between school-based ethnic discrimination and school engagement has mostly examined between-person level associations, which limits our understanding of within-person dynamic fluctuations. The current study assessed how different types (i.e., overt- vs. subtle behavior) and sources (i.e., peer vs. teacher) of school-based ethnic discrimination are linked to behavioral, emotional, and cognitive school engagement at the same- and next-day levels. Participants were secondary school students of Turkish and Arab descent (N = 87, Mage = 15, 62% female) in an ethnically diverse area of north-west Germany. Using an interval-contingent design, participants completed a daily diary once a day over a two week-period using a smartphone application. At the within-person level, multilevel models indicated that discrimination by teachers was negatively related to same-day cognitive engagement and next-day emotional engagement. We found little evidence for within-person links between any discrimination types and sources and behavioral school engagement. This study documents the negative consequences of experiencing school-based ethnic discrimination on student school engagement.