Examining the Factors Affecting the School Engagement of At-risk Students Attending Disadvantaged Schools

Abstract

The current study seeks to investigate which factors affect the school engagement of at-risk students attending disadvantaged district schools. To this end, we used linear regression, logistic prediction, and structural regression modeling to analyze the effects of several in-school and out-of-school variables on students’ school engagement. The study sample was comprised of 359 students enrolled in middle schools located in the Çinçin neighborhood of the Altındağ district of Ankara, Turkey. The majority of inhabitants in this neighborhood are either Romani or immigrants with very low income levels and whose school age children do not attend school. This neighbor is notorious for its high crime rate, broken families, and security problems, all factors that put the children living in this neighborhood at great risk. The findings of the current study reveal that such out-of-school variables as parents’ employment and education status, family unity, and the number of siblings do not significantly affect children’s school engagement whereas gender and grade level do. On the other hand, when an integrated regression model that included the school life quality was constructed, children’s grade level was found to lose its statistical significance. The final model indicated that the most important predictors of disadvantaged students’ school engagement were quality of school life and, most importantly, teachers.