Russian adaptation and validation of the “multidimensional school engagement scale”

Relevance. Research in the field of educational psychology is impossible without reliable and effective psycho-diagnostics methods for assessing students' motivational, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics. 

Objective. The article describes results of adaptation and validation of the Russian version of “Multidimensional School Engagement Scale” (Wang et al., 2019). School engagement is seen as the sustainable, purposeful, active participation of students in their school life manifested at the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and social levels. 

Methods. A psychometric assessment of the method was carried out on a sample of the 6–11 grade students of Russian secondary schools (N = 687). In the process of adapting the questionnaire for Russian-speaking students, a direct and reverse translation of the questions was carried out and the factor structure of the questionnaire was investigated using confirmatory factor analysis, factor validity of the model invariance depending on gender, scales’ internal consistency and external validity was also checked. 

Results. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that original bi-factor structure of the questionnaire was preserved identifying two global factors: engagement and disengagement (χ2 (563) = 1252.66; p = 0.00; CFI = 0.938; GFI = .907; RMSEA = 0.042). The scales of the questionnaire have a sufficiently high reliability according to the internal consistency of their points (Alpha Cronbach from 0.63 to 0.90). The number of questions included in the Russian version corresponds to the original version of the questionnaire. 

Conclusions. The study results confirmed the relevancy of considering engagement a multidimensional construct including an assessment of behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and social aspects. The questionnaire can be used on the samples of students in grades 5 to 11. The article contains the text of the questionnaire, instructions and key. 

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