Academic Engagement Profiles, Identity Styles, and Goal Orientations among First-Year University Students: Latent Profile Analysis

Introduction.  The quality of students’ engagement in the educational process is a strong indicator of their learning and academic performance. Low levels of academic engagement can result in lower academic achievements and various behavioral issues, such as school dropout. Many of first-year university students face challenges in engagement. Thus, the study’s objective is to identify the potential subgroups of Academic Engagement (AE) in first year university students using a person-centered approach and explore the association between these subgroups, identity styles, and goal orientations. Method.  416 first year university students participated in this study. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), univariate analysis, and multinomial logistic regression were performed to explore academic engagement profiles and identify associated variables. Chi-square test and NOVA analyses was used for multiple comparisons between subgroups in gender, identity styles and goal orientations. Results.  The identified three subgroups of academic engagement included: low AE level group (8.7%), medium AE level group (51.3%), and high AE level group (40%). The results showed that there was no statistically significant differences in gender among the different classes. There was a statistically significant difference in commitment style, performance avoidance, performance approach, and mastery performance among different latent classes. The post hoc test using LSD method revealed that high and medium AE level group were higher than low AE level group in commitment style, performance avoidance, performance approach, and mastery performance. High AE level group were higher than medium AE level group. Multinomial logistic regression analysis results indicated that students with commitment style or performance avoidance were more likely to be classified as medium; however, high AE level group students with mastery performance were more likely to be classified as high AE level group. Discussion and Conclusion.  There is heterogeneity in academic engagement among first year university students that can be classified into three subgroups. Identifying these groups, their identity styles, and goal orientations could help teachers and educators to organize probity programs for them.