Do needs for competence and relatedness mediate the risk of low engagement of students with behavior and social problem profiles?

This study aims to assess if students presenting one of five possible profiles of cooccurring externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, and social problems are more likely than students without problems to report a lower sense of competence and relatedness which would act as mediators leading to lower behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. Path analyses and bootstrapping conducted among a sample of 582 fifth- and sixth-grade students, show that sense of relatedness to school mediated the links between having any type of behavior and social problems profile and later lower engagement. For girls presenting a profile marked by any type of behavior and social problems, a lower sense of competence led to lower emotional engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that sense of relatedness to school is especially important for students at-risk of low engagement because of an accumulation of behavior and social problems.
Source: Learning and Individual Differences - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research