Academic engagement: The potential role of social–emotional competencies: A study conducted among Norwegian lower secondary school students

Background: Academic engagement is widely considered to be a key determinant of student success and overall healthy development. As such, it is particularly alarming that recent studies have raised concerns about declining academic engagement levels, especially among adolescents. One potential avenue that might be considered relevant is the role of social–emotional competencies. Despite its importance, however, research examining academic engagement as a primary outcome in the context of social–emotional competence remains scarce. Further investigation is required to enhance our understanding of how social–emotional competencies might support adolescent students and identify which specific social–emotional competencies are most salient. Furthermore, an exploration of students’ perspectives and experiences on learning social–emotional competencies are warranted. The focus of this thesis, therefore, is to investigate the potential role of social–emotional competencies in lower secondary school students’ academic engagement. A theoretical framework is proposed, grounded in self-determination theory and control-value theory, to examine how these social–emotional competencies might support students’ academic engagement. Drawing on these theoretical perspectives and prior research, it was deemed relevant to include three intermediate variables to investigate this potential relationship: emotional well-being, emotional support from teachers, and collaborative peer relations. Aims: This thesis’ overall purpose was twofold: (a) to investigate how social–emotional competencies relate to academic engagement using quantitative research methods and (b) to explore how students perceive learning about social–emotional competencies in relation to their academic engagement using a qualitative research method. This multimethod research project comprised three distinct yet interrelated studies, each with a specific sub-question feeding back into the main research question: “To what extent are social–emotional competencies related ...