Psychometric properties of two major approaches to measure school engagement in university students

Students’ engagement could be described as the holy grail of learning, due to its relationship with positive educational outcomes both inside and outside of school. Academic engagement is widely conceived as a multidimensional construct, however, there are many discrepancies regarding the number and nature of the dimensions which compose it. The aim of this research was to establish if two of the most widely adopted traditions of engagement (the American and the European model) converge, or differ, in their results and structure. To test this, nine structural equation models were estimated and tested in a sample composed by 870 university students from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Fit indexes pointed out at model eight as the best fitting model, a Bifactor ESEM model in which items explained variance was divided between a general underlying factor and the dimensions to which they correspond. Factor structure of both scales was congruent with previous literature, as well as convergent and discriminant validity, and reliability. We can conclude that although dimensions of engagement are empirically distinguishable, there is a big portion of common variance, thus, regardless the variety of conceptualizations of school engagement, there is strong empirical evidence that, although manifestations of engagement are different, the underlying mechanism of feeling engaged is the same.