The Relationship Between Life Satisfaction, Learner Engagement And Performance in Adolescents in Selected Public Secondary Schools in Windhoek, Namibia

ABSTRACT 

High school learners are at risk of becoming disengaged and demotivated at school which could negatively affect their academic performance or even more drastically, result in them dropping out of school. The Namibian education authorities have several concerns relating to poor national results and the increasing dropout statistics of learners. In addition, Namibia’s high unemployment rate has been attributed to its generally low levels of education and lack of skilled and educated people. Engaged learners are self-regulated, establish their own academic goals and evaluate their achievements, successfully direct their own learning and remain engaged. Research shows that life satisfaction can play a positive role in improving engagement levels in students and learners. Empirical evidence indicates that engaged learners tend to perform better academically, have lower dropout rates, improved psychological functioning and pursue higher education. Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory offers an explanation for this by suggesting that the experience of frequent positive emotions such as high life satisfaction and engagement can broaden cognition which leads to an accumulation of personal, physical, behavioural and social resources that improve human functioning. However, life satisfaction and engagement research involving adolescents is still limited and from the Namibian context, no similar studies were found. The aim of this research is to evaluate the levels of life satisfaction, learner engagement and academic performance among adolescents in selected public secondary schools in Windhoek, Namibia and investigate whether these constructs influence one another in any way. A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was ii used with a sample population of 540 high school learners from public schools in Windhoek. The measuring instruments that were used were the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS), the Work Engagement Scale (WES) which was adapted for the school context, a researcher-developed biographical questionnaire, a researcher-designed academic self-report and an academic self-report. Statistical analysis was conducted in terms of descriptive, correlational, t-tests, ANOVAs and multiple regression analysis. The results suggested that there are significant positive relationships between life satisfaction and learner engagement and also between learner engagement and academic performance. No significant relationship was found between gender and grade levels influencing life satisfaction, learner engagement and academic performance. The age of the learners did, however, account for the large variation seen in academic performance, with average academic performance decreasing with an increase in the learners’ age. The results gathered concluded that life satisfaction is a significant predictor of learner engagement and learner engagement is a significant predictor of academic performance. There was no significant predictive relationship directly between life satisfaction and academic performance. The results from this study validate the potential benefits of developing intervention programmes directed towards increasing learners’ levels of engagement with the intention of improving academic performance. Future research initiatives involving these constructs are needed as there is still a lack of information about their value specifically to the Namibian context.