School engagement of high school students

Abstract

Students' high academic achievement, positive peer relationship, and regular attendance to school may affect their school engagement. Many researches can be found in the literature which introduce that students who have high school engagement continue their lives as happier and more successful individuals. The aim of this study is to test the correlation of school engagement of High School students with absenteeism, academic achievement, peer relationships and fear of failure variables by regression analysis. Study group of this research consists of 269 (52.2%) girls and 246 (47.8%) boys, 515 students in total who study at High Schools in Ankara during 2014-2015 academic year. Data were collected through School Engagement Scale which was developed by Arastaman (2006), Fear of Failure Scale which was developed by Kandemir (2012), Peer Relationships Scale which was developed by Bukowski, Hoza and Bolvin (1994) and was adapted in Turkish by Atik, Çoban, Çok, Doǧan and Kahraman (2014), and Personal Information Form which was developed by the researchers of this study. The data of this descriptive study was tested by multiple hierarchic regression analysis. SPSS was used for analysis. According to findings obtained; school engagement is predicted meaningfully by absenteeism and peer relationships variables, but it is not predicted by academic achievement and fear of failure variables. Findings were discussed under the light of related literature and suggestions were presented.