Exploring the Student Engagement Instrument and Career Perceptions with College Students

The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) is a relatively new inventory designed to measure cognitive and affective engagement in school for middle and high school students. We explored the reliability and validity of the SEI for 122 college students. Results provided evidence for adequate to good reliability and validity--indicating a good fit between the data and a 4-factor structure based on Teacher-Student Relationships, Peer Support at School, Future Aspirations and Goals, and Family Support for Learning. Two factors representing affective engagement (Peer Support at School and Teacher-Student Relationships) emerged as important predictors of career perceptions in our college student sample. Peer Support at School also predicted college GPA. Facilitating continuity in the operationalization and measurement of student engagement across secondary and post-secondary settings, findings also highlight the potential importance of student engagement to career development.