Student Engagement, Executive Function Skills, and Academic Success: The Connection during the College Years

The present study examined the relationship between executive function (EF) skills, student engagement and academic success during the college years. Prior work on EF and on student engagement have noted the connection of each to academic success. However, recently scholars have highlighted the importance of examining the dynamics of human development, more comprehensively examining the nuanced relationships between individual and cultural systems over developmental time (Raeff, 2016). This leads us to examine whether and how EF may not only influence academic outcomes directly, but also exert effects through students’ engagement with learning. Using a national sample of full-time students enrolled in US colleges contacted via social media, two hundred and eight college students completed a survey of student engagement (Marôco et al., 2016) and a survey of executive function (Ramos-Galarza et al., 2020). Analyses focused on developmental differences in EF skills, student engagement, and grades and whether and how student engagement played a mediating role in the relationship between executive function and grades. Independent-sample t-tests were conducted to compare first year and senior students and no support was found for differences, so first year students and seniors were combined for the further analyses. A simple mediational analysis supported hypothesis 2 that student engagement mediates the relationship between executive function and grades. The parallel mediation analysis supported hypothesis 3 for behavioral and emotional engagement, but not cognitive engagement. The results highlight the complex relationships between student engagement, executive function, and academic achievement. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.