Files
Abstract
The present study was designed to determine whether elementary students ratings of student engagement and disaffection in fourth and fifth grade using a person-centered approach was predictive of their likelihood to have one or more school dropout indicators (i.e., significant attendance issues, discipline offenses, or course failure of Language Arts or Mathematics) by middle school (grade 6). Student self-report Likert-type ratings were collected from 6,164 students over 4 time points. Following exploratory latent class analysis recommendations and model building, a six-class model was interpreted for each time point. Significant associations with class membership for academic course failure were found. However, different classes were determined across grade levels, changes in class membership, and many significant residual covariances were observed that suggest there may be developmental differences across timepoints or from one school year to the next. Limitations and future directions are described.