title: Cultural universality and specificity of student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated how student engagement in school is associated with grade, gender, and contextual factors across 12 countries. It also investigated whether these associations vary across countries with different levels of individualism and socio-economic development.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants were 3,420 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants completed a questionnaire to report their engagement in school, the instructional practices they experienced, and the support they received from teachers, peers, and parents. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the effects at both student and country levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results across countries revealed a decline in student engagement from Grade 7 to Grade 9, with girls reporting higher engagement than boys. These trends did not vary across the 12 countries according to the Human Development Index and Hofstede's Individualism Index. Most of the contextual factors (instructional practices, teacher support, and parent support) were positively associated with student engagement. With the exception that parent support had a stronger association with student engagement in countries with higher collectivism, most of the associations between the contextual factors and student engagement did not vary across countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate both cultural universality and specificity regarding contextual factors associated with student engagement in school. They illustrate the advantages of integrating etic and emic approaches in cross-cultural investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Shui-fong
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4506-9047
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, University of California - Santa Barbara, California, USA.
authors.forename: Shane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jimerson
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyeonsook
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cefai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Feliciano H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Veiga
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Chryse
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hatzichristou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Fotini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Polychroni
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia.|Institute of Psychology, University of Tallinn, Estonia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kikas
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling and Psychology, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Bernard P H
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Teacher Training, University of Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stanculescu
authors.affiliation: St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council, Merseyside, UK.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Basnett
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Laurentian University, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duck
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.affiliation: Yunnan Health Education Institute, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Negovan
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, California State University - San Bernardino, California, USA.
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Hongfei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Styria Local Ministry of Education, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zollneritsch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: collectivism; contextual factors; culture; individualism; socio-economic development; student engagement