Validation of the Spanish Version of the Academic Engagement Scale for Primary Education

Abstract

Student academic engagement is currently a topic of great interest within the field of educational research. Consensus exists in the scientific literature that it is a multifaceted construct made up of three dimensions: behavioral, affective/emotional and cognitive engagement. Nonetheless, other work has emerged advocating for the inclusion of a fourth dimension, namely, agentic engagement. Despite advances produced internationally, in Spain, there is a lack of valid instruments to measure academic engagement at primary education level. Thus, the present study aimed to carry out a cross-cultural validation and adaptation to the Spanish context of two important instruments for measuring academic engagement in primary education. Following a process of adaptation, the instrument was administered to a sample of 527 students (54.3% boys, 45.7% girls) undertaking 3rd to 6th grade primary education in six schools in the province of Albacete (Spain). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed of different plausible models in order to obtain the most appropriate factor structure. Reliability analyses were also conducted. Outcomes revealed that better fit was achieved in models in which agentic engagement was integrated separately to the other three dimensions, making this the most appropriate option. The resulting instrument, the academic engagement scale for primary education students, was shown to be valid and reliable for measuring this construct within Spanish students undertaking between 3rd and 6th grade of primary education.