Abstract
BACKGROUND: Students who have experienced adversity tend to demonstrate poorer academic outcomes than their non-maltreated peers. Academic engagement, a multidimensional, motivational construct, associated with a myriad of positive academic outcomes is an important academically-related mechanism that can be leveraged to improve the outcomes of this population. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to better understanding of how engagement develops in the context of adversity by exploring the effects emotion regulation skills and parent-child relationships have on engagement development. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Analyses were conducted on 795 participants in the NSCAW dataset. METHODS: Path analysis was used to estimate mediation and moderated mediation models. RESULTS: Emotion regulation skills significantly mediated the effect experiencing trauma symptoms had on engagement. Parent-child relationship quality moderated the mediation effect emotion regulation skills had on the relationship between experiencing trauma symptoms and engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Emotion regulation skills and parent-child relationship quality are potential intervention targets to improve engagement for students who have experienced adversity.