Emotional and Behavioural Engagement among Spanish Students in Vocational Education and Training

Inmaculada Sureda-García, Rafael Jiménez-López, Olaya Álvarez-García and Elena Quintana-Murci
Additional contact information
Inmaculada Sureda-García: Department of Applied Education and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain
Rafael Jiménez-López: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain
Olaya Álvarez-García: Department of Applied Education and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain
Elena Quintana-Murci: Department of Applied Education and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyse the importance of student engagement in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Spain. In accordance with this concept, we analyse how emotional engagement (relations with teachers, relations with peers, family support for learning, and perception of family commitment) influences the behavioural engagement (school effort and commitment, school indiscipline) in academic activities of students in basic and intermediate VET. The sample comprises 1180 students (65.4% male), 28.8% in basic VET and 71.2% in intermediate VET, ranging in age from 14 to 19 years. Data analysis bases on linear regression and regression trees enable the prediction of behavioural engagement according to the subdimensions of emotional engagement, sociodemographic characteristics of the subpopulations, and level of studies. Significant differences were found (t(1013.8) = 8.37, p < 0.001) for the variable of sex (a higher value in females), and variable of the level of studies (t(579.1) = 3.60, p < 0.001) in behavioural engagement. All correlations between the indicators for the behavioural and emotional dimensions were significant. The results provide favourable profiles of behavioural engagement related to having good relationships with the teaching staff, being female, and being enrolled in intermediate VET. These findings imply the reorientation of educational intervention.

Keywords: student engagement; emotional engagement; behavioural engagement; student-teacher relations; vocational education and training (VET) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3882/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3882/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3882-:d:527848

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().