Engagement from Elementary to Junior High

Students’ engagement in their learning has an important influence on academic achievement and school completion. For students at the onset of puberty, navigating both academic demands and social challenges can have implications for their mental health and can interfere with their engagement. The transition from elementary to junior high school may be a particularly key time for this, as this transition may influence engagement.

For Dr. Gabrielle Wilcox and her team, understanding the multiple factors at play in students’ academic engagement as they move from elementary to junior high was essential to inform supports for students in that transition. Surveying 1,904 students in grades 5-9, the study examined the relationship between social factors, anxiety, perceived support, and academic engagement. The team was also interested in whether gender, anxiety, and social support were predictive of academic engagement for students in both elementary and junior high.

Trends in Engagement

The survey indicated that elementary students reported higher levels of engagement than those in junior high. This supports other findings which note a decreasing trend for engagement from elementary to junior high and again to high school. The elementary students also reported higher levels of support from family and school staff than those in junior high, which again seems to be part of a consistent trend.

The junior high students, however, reported higher levels of peer support than elementary students. This may be a result of students perceiving peer support as more available or more important than school staff at this age. These social supports (family, school staff, and peers) were significant predictors of engagement for both groups, which speaks to their importance regardless of grade level.

Interestingly, family affluence did not significantly predict academic engagement. Further, while gender did not predict lower engagement at the elementary level, junior high males were less likely to be engaged than females. The importance of anxiety in being able to overcome setbacks may account for the drop in engagement, as older students reported higher levels of anxiety, which may influence their academic engagement.

Supporting Transition

This study highlights the importance of social supports in promoting student academic engagement. Teachers, family, and peers are significant to students in both elementary and junior high and should be considered in discussions of supporting engagement. For students in junior high, however, gender and anxiety play more important roles in engagement than for students in elementary.

Programming in schools to support positive social relationships for students during this transition may be helpful in addressing their academic engagement. Similarly, addressing and preparing students for the transition may provide students with strategies to maintain or increase their engagement during this time. Parents and teachers can both play a role in this process, separately and together. Helping students to understand the changes, make social connections, and build the necessary skills and coping strategies to transition may increase their success.

*This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)*