The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3516061.pdf

School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence

This meta-analysis examined how demand and resource correlates and behavioral and attitudinal correlates were related to each of the 3 dimensions of job burnout. Both the demand and resource correlates were more strongly related to emotional exhaustion than to either depersonalization or personal accomplishment. Consistent with the conservation of resources theory of stress, emotional exhaustion was more strongly related to the demand correlates than to the resource correlates, suggesting that workers might have been sensitive to the possibility of resource loss. The 3 burnout dimensions were differentially related to turnover intentions, organizational commitment, and control coping. Implications for research and the amelioration of burnout are discussed.

A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of the three dimensions of job burnout.

The authors propose a model of the prosocial classroom that highlights the importance of teachers’ social and emotional competence (SEC) and wellbeing in the development and maintenance of supportive teacher–student relationships, effective classroom management, and successful social and emotional learning program implementation. This model proposes that these factors contribute to creating a classroom climate that is more conducive to learning and that promotes positive developmental outcomes among students. Furthermore, this article reviews current research suggesting a relationship between SEC and teacher burnout and reviews intervention efforts to support teachers’ SEC through stress reduction and mindfulness programs. Finally, the authors propose a research agenda to address the potential efficacy of intervention strategies designed to promote teacher SEC and improved learning outcomes for students.

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The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes:

At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals—often referred to under the umbrella acronym LGBT—are becoming more visible in society and more socially acknowledged, clinicians and researchers are faced with incomplete information about their health status. While LGBT populations often are combined as a single entity for research and advocacy purposes, each is a distinct population group with its own specific health needs. Furthermore, the experiences of LGBT individuals are not uniform and are shaped by factors of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical location, and age, any of which can have an effect on health-related concerns and needs. While some research about the health of LGBT populations has been conducted, researchers still have a great deal to learn. To help assess the state of the science, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess current knowledge of the health status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations; to identify research gaps and opportunities; and to outline a research agenda to help NIH focus its research in this area. A committee of experts was convened by the IOM to consider this task, and its findings are presented in its report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding.

The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding

Defining sense of community as a feeling of belongingness within a group, this article reviews research about students' sense of acceptance within the school community to address three questions: Is this experience of belongingness important in an educational setting? Do students currently experience school as a community? And how do schools influence students' sense of community? Conceptually, the review reflects a social cognitive perspective on motivation. This theoretical framework maintains that individuals have psychological needs, that satisfaction of these needs affects perception and behavior, and that characteristics of the social context influence how well these needs are met. The concern here is how schools, as social organizations, address what is defined as a basic psychological need, the need to experience belongingness. The findings suggest that students' experience of acceptance influences multiple dimensions of their behavior but that schools adopt organizational practices that neglect and may actually undermine students' experience of membership in a supportive community.

Students' Need for Belonging in the School Community:

Este articulo analiza el desarrollo y la validacion de una medida de la pertenencia percibida o la pertenencia psicologica de los estudiantes adolescentes al entorno escolar.

The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: scale development and educational correlates.

Early adolescents'sense of classroom belonging and support-of being liked, respected, and valued by fellow students and by the teacher-was investigated among 353 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade middle school students. Focusing on one academic class, students completed scales of classroom belonging and support, expectancies for success, and intrinsic interest and value; course grades and effort ratings were obtained from English teachers. Each of three belonging/support factors identified by principal components analysis contributed significantly to explaining variance in expectancies and value, with teacher support having the most consistently substantial influence across student subgroups. The strength of association between support and motivation dropped significantly from sixth to eighth grade. Teacher support was more closely related to motivation for girls than for boys. Expectancy was the primary predictor of class effort and grades. These findings underscore the importance of belonging and inter...

Classroom Belonging among Early Adolescent Students: Relationships to Motivation and Achievement

Students' subjective sense of school belonging recently has been identified as a potentially important influence on academic motivation, engagement, and participation, especially among students from groups at risk of school dropout. Students' friends also influence their academic motivation, sometimes negatively. In this study, the relationship among early adolescent students' sense of school belonging, perceptions of their friends' academic values, and academic motivation was investigated among 301 African-American, White/Anglo, and Hispanic students in two urban junior high schools. School belonging was significantly associated with several motivation-related measures—expectancy of success, valuing schoolwork, general school motivation, and self-reported effort. Students' beliefs about their friends' academic values were more weakly related to these outcomes. The correlations between school belonging and the motivation-related measures remained positive and statistically significant even after ...

The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends' Values to Academic Motivation Among Urban Adolescent Students

Sexual minority adolescents—those self-identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) or with same-sex desires or sexual experiences—report higher rates of victimization and suicidality than their heterosexual peers, yet little empirical research has examined school factors associated with these risks. This study used data from the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2000), matched with school-level data from state records and school principals, to compare the safety of 202 sexual minority adolescents in 52 schools with and without support groups for LGB students, to investigate the relationship between perceived staff support and safety, and to explore other school factors associated with victimization and suicidality among these youth. As hypothesized, sexual minority adolescents in schools with LGB support groups reported lower rates of victimization and suicide attempts than those in other schools. Victimization and perceived staff support predicted suicidality. Several additional school factors were associated with the safety of sexual minority students. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 573–589, 2006.

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School support groups, other school factors, and the safety of sexual minority adolescents

Objectives. This study compared sexual risk behavioi-s of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) and heterosexual adolescents and evaluated associations between gay-sensitive HIV instruction and risk behaviors of GLB youths. Methods. A random sample of high school students and HIV education teachers completed surveys. Self-reported risk behaviors of heterosexual and GLB adolescents were compared, with control for stiident and community demographic characteristics. Sexual risk behaviors of GLB youths in schools with and without gay-sensitive instruction were compared. Results. GLB youths reported more substance use, high-risk sexual behaviors, suicidal thoughts or attempts, and personal safety issues than did heterosexual youths (P<.001). Among those who were sexually active, GLB youtlis reported more lifetime and recent sexual partners than did heterosexuals (P<.001), and more of them reported alcohol use before last sex {P<.Ol) and a history of pregnancy (P<.001). GLB youths in schools with gay-sensitive instruction reported fewer sexual partners, less recent sex, and less substance use before last sex than did GLB youths in otlier schools (P<.05). Conclusions, 'fhe findings document increased risk behaviors among GLB youtlis and demonstrate the potential benefits of providing gay-sensitive HIV instruction in schools. (.4m,/Public Health. 2Q()\:9\.94()-94b)

Carol Goodenow

Papers

The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: scale development and educational correlates.

Classroom Belonging among Early Adolescent Students: Relationships to Motivation and Achievement

The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends' Values to Academic Motivation Among Urban Adolescent Students

School support groups, other school factors, and the safety of sexual minority adolescents

Preventing sexual risk behaviors among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents: the benefits of gay-sensitive HIV instruction in schools