Abstract:

The concept of school engagement is attracting increasing attention as a possible solution to declining academic motivation and achievement. School engagement has been shown to be contextually responsive and amenable to environmental change (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Research confirms that personality traits are important predictors of academic behavior (Hessen & Kuncel, 2022). We find less research regarding the relationship between school engagement and Big Five personality traits. Research on the role of personality exists more in the area of academic motivation. In this area, there is evidence of openness to experience and extraversion as predictors of school engagement as a key determinant of academic motivation (Komarraju & Karau). Therefore, this study focuses on the correlation between the dimensions of school engagement (cognitive, affective, behavioral and agency) and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience). Research sample: 1013 high school students aged 15-20 years (AM = 17.00, SD = 1.27) from all regions of the Slovak Republic. Research instruments used: the SES-4DS/Student Engagement in Schools - Four-Dimensional Scale (Veiga, 2016) and the Mini International Personality Item Pool/Mini IPIP (Donnellan et al., 2006). The results of the correlational analysis indicate weak to moderate relationships between overall school engagement and all Big Five personality traits. There is a moderate positive relationship between extraversion and the affective component of school engagement (.490***) and a moderate negative relationship between neuroticism and the affective component of school engagement (-.391***). There is a moderate positive relationship between conscientiousness and the behavioral component of school engagement (.334***). The results indicate the role of student's personality in their school engagement. Understanding the relationship between personal characteristics and school engagement may be key to developing more effective teaching strategies.

The paper is a part of the project VEGA 1/0765/21 Multidimensional self-concept of the digital adolescent generation in Slovakia and its contexts.

Keywords:

School engagement, Big five personality traits, adolescents.