Engaged and then committed, or vice versa? Longitudinal links between academic engagement and student commitment during the first college year
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21516740 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chun Cao (0000-0003-4016-0618, Northeast Normal University), Takacs Tamas (Northeast Normal University), Ronghua Liang (Northeast Normal University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-21 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Higher Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03075079.2026.2626789 |
| OpenAlex | W7128195208 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 78 |
Academic engagement and student commitment are interwoven constructs favoring various outcomes for college students. Hence, clarifying their relationships is essential, particularly for the critical first-year college learning. However, no prior study has systematically explored how the three dimensions of academic engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement) and the two types of student commitment (goal commitment and institutional commitment) can be longitudinally related. To fill this research gap, our study utilized three-wave longitudinal data collected from first-year college students (N = 1986; Mage = 18.63, SD = 0.91). Furthermore, cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) were conducted to investigate inter-individual and intra-individual effects, respectively. Regarding academic engagement and goal commitment, CLPMs found unidirectional links from behavioral and emotional engagement to goal commitment and reciprocal links between cognitive engagement and goal commitment. Regarding academic engagement and institutional commitment, CLPMs found unidirectional links from institutional commitment to behavioral and cognitive engagement and reciprocal links between institutional commitment and emotional engagement. In addition, we concluded that the above stable inter-individual effects were not replicable at the within-person level in RI-CLPMs testing dynamic intra-individual effects. The presence of inter-individual effects and the absence of intra-individual effects have advanced the research inquiry of how academic engagement and student commitment can interplay dynamically over the critical first college year
Academic achievement · Academic advising · Higher education · Likert scale · Longitudinal study · Student engagement · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Higher Education Research Studies · Innovations in Educational Methods
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |