Student Engagement: The Roles of Chaos, Self-Regulation, and Classroom Quality

 描述（由申请人提供）：大量研究表明，辍学的决定不是突然做出的，也不是源于最近和潜在的临时因素（Bridgeland，DiIlulio，& Morison，2007）。相反，退学的决定 脱离学校的长期过程，在小学（Barrington和Hendricks，1989年; Christenson，Sinclaire，Lehr和Godber，2001年）甚至在入学之前（Jimerson等人，2000年）。然而，很少有研究审查入学前和早期学校教育期间可能预测小学阶段脱离接触的风险指标。这种早期脱离可能是脱离学校并最终辍学的过程的起源。目前，关于其性质和过程的实证研究很少，尽管小学脱离与中学脱离高度相关（例如，Gottfried等人，2007; Skinner等人，1998）和高中（Gottfried等人，2001; Marks，2000;奥蒂斯等人， 2005年），这是辍学的预测（Archambault，Janosz，Fallu，& Pagini，2009年）。 在拟议的研究中，我们专注于家庭，儿童和学校环境中的幼儿可塑性因素，这些因素可以使儿童早期脱离学校。本研究采用多层次的研究视角，考察了儿童早期家庭环境和早期自我调节行为对三年级学生参与的预测作用。具体来说，我们研究的作用，家庭混乱经历了从出生到5岁和儿童的自我调节能力在幼儿园（K）。我们还建议研究是否高课堂质量在小学早期（K到3年级）可以帮助减轻早期混乱的家庭环境和自我调节困难对后来的学生参与的不利影响。我们将使用结构方程建模框架和多方法多信息数据（观察，教师报告，和/或儿童报告）来推导我们感兴趣的主要结构的潜在变量，包括儿童自我调节，学生参与和课堂质量。这项研究的一个主要优势将是纳入了大量的协变量，以帮助加强推论，包括收入，种族，性别，年龄，父母教养，父母教育和儿童早期阅读成绩。这些数据将来自流行病学来源的样本（N= 1，292），对贫困和非裔美国人家庭进行过度抽样，这为在大型，多样化和高风险人群中研究这些关联提供了前所未有的机会。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A substantial body of research suggests that the decision to drop out of school is not made suddenly nor stems from recent and potentially temporary factors (Bridgeland, DiIlulio, & Morison, 2007). Rather, the decision to drop out is part of a long process of disengagement from school with initial risk indicators evident in elementary school (Barrington & Hendricks, 1989; Christenson, Sinclaire, Lehr, & Godber, 2001) and even prior to school entry (Jimerson et al., 2000). Few studies, however, have examined risk indicators that occur prior to school entry and during early schooling that may predict disengagement in the elementary school years. This early disengagement may represent the genesis of the process of disengagement from school and ultimately school dropout. At present, there is little empirical research on its nature and course, even though disengagement from elementary school is highly correlated with disengagement in middle school (e.g., Gottfried et al., 2007; Skinner et al., 1998) and high school (Gottfried et al., 2001; Marks, 2000; Otis et al., 2005), which is predictive of school dropout (Archambault, Janosz, Fallu, & Pagini, 2009). In the proposed study, we focus on early childhood malleable factors in the home, within the child, and within the school setting that can set children on an early trajectory of school disengagement. We adopt a multi-level perspective by examining the roles of children's early home environments and early self-regulation behavior in predicting student engagement in 3rd grade. Specifically, we examine the role of household chaos experienced from birth to age 5 and child self-regulation ability at Kindergarten (K). We also propose to examine whether high classroom quality across the early elementary school years (K through 3rd grade) can help to mitigate the detrimental effects of early chaotic home environments and self-regulation difficulties on later student engagement. We will use a structural equation modeling framework and multi-method multi-informant data (observational, teacher-report, and/or child-report) to derive latent variables of our major constructs of interest, including child self-regulation, studet engagement, and classroom quality. A major strength of this study will be the inclusion of a wealth of covariates to help strengthen inferences, including income, race, gender, age, parenting, parent education, and child early reading achievement. These data will be drawn from an epidemiologically-derived sample (N=1,292), with oversampling of poor and African American families, which presents an unprecedented opportunity to examine these associations in a large, diverse, and at-risk population.