School engagement in elementary school: a systematic review of 35 years of research

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.
org/10.1007/s10648-021-09642-5
Fisrt published: 30 November 2021
School engagement is considered an antidote to several academic problems found in middle and high school. Previous data highlight the importance of understanding school engagement in early years. The present systematic review aims to outline investigations regarding school engagement in elementary school. Findings are expected to (i) help educators learn about research in a comprehensible way, (ii) design future school-based interventions with strong theoretical support, and (iii) systematize information about research gaps and indicate new avenues for investigation. The systematic search for original articles published up to 2018 followed the PRISMA statement and Cochrane's guidelines. A total of 102 articles were included and organized, according to the self-system model of motivational development from Skinner et al. (Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 765-781, 2008). Results showed that balanced and quality support from peers, teachers, and parents positively influenced school engagement. Additionally, some common characteristics of the school context were found to undermine school engagement. Regarding interventions aimed to promote school engagement, we found various effective designs, differing in complexity. Moreover, studies focused on students' emotions, behaviors and cognitions, experiences, motivational variables, and learning provided important inputs to promote school engagement. Furthermore, studies focused on examining the trajectories of school engagement provided data to understand how to prevent school engagement from declining throughout schooling. Finally, most studies found a positive and significant relationship between school engagement and achievement; however, results differ regarding the source of information or school domain examined. The school engagement conceptualizations, dimensions, and measures used were analyzed and their relationships to the results were discussed.
This study was partially conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (UID/PSI/01662/2019), through the national funds (PIDDAC). Juliana Martins (SFRH/BD/132058/2017) was supported by a PhD studentship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P.), funded with allocations from the State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education, and with allocations from the European Social Fund, to be made available under PORTUGAL2020, namely through the North Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020).