Psychological disengagement in elementary school among ethnic minority students

Abstract

This study examined dimensions of psychological disengagement as predictors of achievement and teacher-rated behavioral engagement over the course of a school year among a sample of 111 African American and Latino children in 1st–5th grades at an urban elementary school. In addition, classroom and school contextual factors were investigated as predictors of psychological disengagement. Findings suggest that, on average, students exhibited moderate levels of academic devaluing and high levels of academic valuing. There were largely no grade differences for any constructs and African Americans had higher alternative identification than Latinos. Given equal prior achievement, greater alternative identification predicted lower behavioral engagement and only the devaluing of academics consistently predicted poorer outcomes on language arts and math scores. In contrast, academic valuing was not found to be predictive of behavioral engagement or achievement. The valuing of academics measure may reflect dominant societal views on academics (abstract attitudes) and the devaluing measures, more nuanced and personal views (concrete attitudes). Higher perceived negative teacher feedback predicted more devaluing of academics and at the level of a trend, greater perceived teacher care at a classroom level predicted less devaluing. Findings highlight the importance of proximal interactions between teachers and students in the link between psychological disengagement from learning and achievement among ethnic minority children.