A new measure for the assessment of the university engagement: The SInAPSi academic engagement scale (SAES)

Abstract

Despite the growing interest on the notion of academic engagement (AE) and its relevance for students’ success, a few valid and reliable instruments on AE have been developed. Moreover, most of the available measures consider AE as a student’s trait rather than a relational and situated dynamic process. This study presents the development and validation of a new instrument, the SInAPSi Academic Engagement Scale (SAES), which was developed within a project coordinated by the SInAPSi center of the Authors’ University and it aims to measure AE. The main sample was constituted by 680 students and a convenience sample of 312 biology and biotechnologies students was also involved to perform the confirmatory factor analysis of the initial factor structure of the SAES. Construct validity was assessed using the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI), while criterion-related validity was established with the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), the students’ confidence in one’s own preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. Results show that the SAES presents a robust factor structure, a good convergent and discriminant validity, and satisfactory psychometric properties. Furthermore, the SAES shows a positive correlation with the USEI and the AMS, the students’ confidence in their preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. The results indicate that the SAES can produce valid and reliable data on AE and it may have strong implications for assessing AE and implementing intervention programs for university students.