Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England

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Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England

Symonds, J; Schoon, I; Salmela-Aro, K; (2016) Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England. British Educational Research Journal , 42 (6) pp. 993-1022. 10.1002/berj.3243. Green open access

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Abstract

This study identified the varied ways in which emotional disengagement from schoolwork typically developed between 14 and 16 years of age, in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. Using growth mixture modelling we found eight main trajectories of (dis)engagement, with four trajectories of either increasing or stable emotional disengagement with schoolwork (41% of the sample). Using propensity score matching to create groups balanced on a wide range of covariates at Wave 1, we compared disengaged students to their engaged counterparts to identify the longitudinal effects of disengagement-trajectory membership on behavioural engagement, psychological wellbeing, substance use, career pathways and achievement. Using linear and binary logistic regressions, we established that students in disengagement trajectories developed lower achievement across compulsory secondary school, and participated less in education and more in employment at age 17 years. In young adulthood (age 19–20 years) they were less likely to attend university and more likely to be unemployed. During secondary schooling, they developed higher levels of substance use and poorer psychological wellbeing, which persisted in the year after compulsory school. However, in young adulthood, the differences in substance use dissipated and students in most of the disengagement trajectories had relatively similar life satisfaction to their counterparts. These findings suggest that students (except perhaps those who became unemployed) were able to develop healthily and happily after leaving the schoolwork environments from which they were emotionally disengaged.

Type:	Article
Title:	Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1002/berj.3243
Publisher version:	http://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3243
Language:	English
Additional information:	© 2016 British Educational Research Association. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Symonds, J; Schoon, I; Salmela-Aro, K; (2016) Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England. British Educational Research Journal 10.1002/berj.3243, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3243. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Keywords:	Achievement; psychological wellbeing; student engagement; substance use
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1527447