The developmental trajectory of behavioral school engagement and its reciprocal relations with subjective well-being in school among Chinese elementary school students

Abstract

Although the development of elementary school students' behavioral school engagement in Western societies has received much research attention, longitudinal research on its development and predictors in China is still sparse. This two-year, four-wave, accelerated longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectory of behavioral school engagement across Grades 3–6 among Chinese school students. Based on positive psychology constructs, we investigated the longitudinal relations between subjective well-being (SWB) in school and behavioral school engagement. Data were collected from self-report questionnaires completed by 1057 children (572 males, Mage = 9.4) from Grades 3–5 at the time of the first assessment. Analyses of latent growth curve models indicated a curvilinear trend of behavioral school engagement with an initial increase followed by a slight decrease. Analyses of autoregressive cross-lagged models showed that SWB in school and behavioral school engagement were reciprocally predictive over time. Although cross-cultural research is needed, our findings suggest a possible, unique influence of Chinese culture in shaping the developmental pattern of Chinese students' behavioral school engagement and the role of school-aged children's SWB in school in their behavioral school engagement. Limitations and implications of this study were discussed.