The role of socioemotional skills and phone dependency in predicting patterns of school engagement and burnout among primary school students

Despite a growing body of literature on school engagement and burnout, little is known about how these constructs jointly vary in response to socioemotional skills and phone dependency. This study examined how socioemotional skills and phone dependency predict engagement-burnout profiles among primary school students (N = 615; 47% female; M_age = 9.69, SD_age = 0.79). The dimensions of school engagement and burnout were examined as indicators of the latent profiles. The OECD socioemotional skills framework (curiosity, grit, social engagement, belongingness, and academic buoyancy) and phone dependency were examined as predictors of profile membership. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct profiles: (1) a moderately burned-out group (36.1%); (2) a highly burned-out and moderately engaged group (10.9%); and (3) a highly engaged group (53%). Follow-up logistic regression analysis revealed that students who reported a higher level of social engagement, buoyancy, and grit were more likely to be engaged than those who were burned out. In contrast, students who felt lonely and curious were more likely to experience burnout. Moreover, those who reported higher levels of phone dependency and left-behind status were more likely to have burnout symptoms. These findings highlight the role of socioemotional skills and phone dependency in understanding student engagement and burnout, with implications for school interventions.