Adversity, Engagement, and Later Achievement: The Role of Emotion Regulation and Parent-Child Relationship Quality.

BACKGROUND

Students who have experienced adversity tend to demonstrate poorer academic outcomes than their non-maltreated peers. Academic engagement, a multidimensional, motivational construct, associated with a myriad of positive academic outcomes is an important academically-related mechanism that can be leveraged to improve the outcomes of this population.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to better understanding of how engagement develops in the context of adversity by exploring the effects emotion regulation skills and parent-child relationships have on engagement development.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Analyses were conducted on 795 participants in the NSCAW dataset.

METHODS

Path analysis was used to estimate mediation and moderated mediation models.

RESULTS

Emotion regulation skills significantly mediated the effect experiencing trauma symptoms had on engagement. Parent-child relationship quality moderated the mediation effect emotion regulation skills had on the relationship between experiencing trauma symptoms and engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

Emotion regulation skills and parent-child relationship quality are potential intervention targets to improve engagement for students who have experienced adversity.