The role of study engagement in university students' daily experiences : A multilevel test of moderation

Abstract

The present study investigated the dynamic nature of students' daily experiences and general study engagement using intra-individual assessment. More specifically, we examined individual differences in the relationship between university students' task-specific value and situational emotions and, further, whether first-year study engagement would moderate this association during the first two years of studies. Intra-individual state assessments were conducted via mobile phone-based experience sampling method (ESM) during participants' first (N = 72) and second (N = 56) academic years, resulting in 3089 and 2912 fully completed state questionnaires. In both years, students were asked five times a day over two weeks how important they perceived their current activity and their positive and negative emotions. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that, on average, a higher perception of task-specific value was associated with higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions within individuals. However, individual differences were detected in the value-emotion relations especially during the second academic year. Finally, the findings indicated that overall study engagement, measured at the beginning of the first academic year, predicted between-person differences in these within-person relationships both years.