Sense of Belonging, Achievement Goals and Student Engagement among University Students

Abstract

The aim of present study was to examine the relationship between sense of belonging, achievement goals, and student engagement among university students. Moreover, these variables were also explored with reference to different demographic variables like gender, age, marital status, family system, residence, and parental status. A sample of 290 university students was selected belonging to different university of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Sense of belonging, achievement goals, and student engagement were measured through Student Sense of Connectedness Scale (Brew et al., 2004), Achievement Goals Questionnaire (Elliot & Murayama, 2008), and Student Engagement Scale (Welborn, 1991) respectively. Alpha reliabilities were found to be acceptable for all the measures. Results indicated that sense of belonging (and its domains) had a positively relationship with student engagement. Similarly, achievement goals domains mastery approach goals, mastery avoidance goals, performance approach goals and performance avoidance goals had a positive relationship student engagement. It was seen that married students were higher than single students on student engagement. It was also depicted that student whose parents are living together scored higher on student engagement than whose parents are separated.