A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Relation Between Engagement and Achievement in Early Childhood Research. (November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lindström, Esther R.; Chow, Jason C.; Zimmerman, Kathleen N.; Zhao, Hongyang; Settanni, Elise; Ellison, Alyson
• Is Part Of: Topics in early childhood special education. Volume 41:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 221
• Page End: 235
• Publication Date: 2021-11
• Subjects: engagement -- achievement -- measurement -- early childhood -- meta-analysis; Children with disabilities -- Education (Preschool) -- Periodicals; Child Development -- Periodicals; Education, Special -- Periodicals; Enfants handicapés -- Enseignement préscolaire -- Périodiques; Éducation précoce; Éducation préscolaire; Éducation spéciale; Enfant handicapé; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 371.905
• DOI: 10.1177/02711214211032720
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0271-1214

Abstract

Engagement in early childhood has been linked with later achievement, but the relation between these variables and how they are measured in early childhood requires examination. We estimated the overall association between academic engagement and achievement in children prior to kindergarten entry. Our systematic literature search yielded 13, 521 reports for structured eligibility screening; from this pool of studies, we identified 21 unique data sets, with 199 effect sizes for analysis. We coded eligible studies, extracted effect sizes, accounted for effect size dependency, and used random-effects models to synthesize findings. The overall correlation between academic engagement and achievement was r = .24 (range: −.08 to .71), and moderator analyses did not significantly predict the relation between the two constructs. This study aligns with previous research on this topic and examines issues related to these measures, their constraints, and applications as they pertain to early childhood research.