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83: Measurin student engagement in school with SES-4DS: New psychometric evidence in two samples of Romanian adolescents

Conceptual Framework: Measuring student engagement is a key issue addressed in the field of educational research. The Students’ Engagement in School-Four Dimensional Scale (SES-4DS; Veiga, 2016, 2013) was created to capture four dimensions of engagement in upper elementary through high school Portuguese students. The cross-cultural construct validity of the SES-4DS has been examined with two samples of Portuguese and Romanian adolescents (Veiga & Robu, 2014). Objectives: The aim of the present study was to obtain new psychometric evidence for the Romanian version of the SES-4DS. Its factorial structure, reliability, and construct validity were addressed. Methodology: The factorial structure of the SES-4DS was evaluated using a sample of 529 Romanian adolescents (study 1). An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on principal component extraction and direct oblim rotation was performed. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with AMOS, the metric model was counter-validated in a second sample of 646 adolescents (study 2). The second sample also completed an additional measure (The Academic Motivation Scale-High School Version/AMS-HS; Vallerand, Blais, Brière, & Pelletier, 1989; Vallerand et al., 1992) to assess the construct validity of the SES-4DS. Results: Based on EFA, four latent factors were revealed. These factors accounted for 54.1% of the total item variance. The hypothetical metric model with four interrelated latent factors and four pairs of correlated item errors fitted the input data satisfactorily. The internal consistency ranged from 0.65 to 0.75 (study 1), and from 0.73 to 0.80 (study 2). As predicted, all four subscales of the SES-4DS were positively associated with intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation subscales of the AMS-HS. However, the correlations were lower for extrinsic motivation subscales. There were negative correlations between the scores for cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement and the score for amotivation. Girls reported significantly higher cognitive and behavioral engagement than did boys (study 2). Conclusion: The SES-4DS is a valid and reliable short measure which can be used to explore the dimensions of engagement in school among adolescents.

Author(s):

Anişoara Sandovici    
Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences, “Petre Andrei” University from Iasi
Romania

Lavinia Maria Pruteanu    
Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences, “Petre Andrei” University from Iasi
Romania

Viorel Robu    
Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences, “Petre Andrei” University from Iasi
Romania