Student behavioral engagement as a mediator between teacher, family, and peer support and school truancy

Variation in situation-specific engagement among lower secondary school students

“…Level of student engagement has also been documented to be associated with students' academic achievement and motivation (see Fredricks et al, 2004). Academically successful middle and high school students have been found to report greater engagement with school than students with low academic success (Virtanen, Lerkkanen, Poikkeus, & Kuorelahti, 2014;Wang & Fredricks, 2014). This finding is similar to those showing that academic achievement predicts subsequent task-focused behavior (Onatsu-Arvilommi & Nurmi, 2000) and interest in academic subjects (e.g., Viljaranta, Tolvanen, Aunola, & Nurmi, 2014).…”

“…Based on prior literature (e.g., Virtanen et al, 2014), we expected that higher academic achievement would be associated with higher student-reported situation-specific engagement. Our findings indicated that after controlling for students' gender, their academic achievement did not predict their level of behavioral/cognitive or emotional engagement in the lessons.…”

“…We expected to find between-student (inter-individual) variation in students' engagement (Authors et al, 2016;Martin et al, 2015), as well as within student (intraindividual) variation between lessons (i.e., from one lesson to another). We assumed that students' high engagement would be associated with high academic achievement (Virtanen et al, 2014). In turn, lesson-to-lesson variation was expected to be associated with school subject being studied (Shernoff et al, 2003;Marks, 2000) and time of the day (Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003).…”

The Role of Parental Beliefs and Practices in Children’s Motivation in a Changing World

“…Parents have a strong effect on their children's schooling, especially in terms of encouragement and expectations that they transmit to their children concerning the importance of education (Cheung & Pomerantz, 2015). For example, authoritative parenting, a stimulating home environment, and positive parental beliefs, expectations, and support have been shown to foster children's motivation and engagement in school at all ages (Aunola, Nurmi, Lerkkanen, & Rasku-Puttonen, 2003;Virtanen, Lerkkanen, Poikkeus, & Kuorelahti, 2014).…”

Peer Support at Schools: the Buddy Approach as a Prevention and Intervention Strategy for School Bullying

“…The holistic educational experience has been well documented to improve through the provision of additional school supports (Chong et al 2006;Virtanen et al 2014;Visser 2004). Considered an umbrella term, peer support (PS) is one way in which educational institutions are supporting and encouraging students to support each other, through a formalised framework ).…”