Reducing Economic Inequalities in Educational Attainment: The Moderating Effect of Student Engagement and Academic Self-Concept

Research has consistently shown a positive association between students’ economic background and completing upper secondary school. Finding ways to minimise this association is urgent to reduce economic inequalities in educational attainment. This study uses combined survey and administrative registered data gathered between 2014 and 2020, from 1,956 Icelandic adolescents, to explore whether the relationship between students’ family income and the probability of school completion varies by their academic self-concept and multiple indicators of student engagement. A series of binary logistic models showed that student engagement and academic self-concept mitigate the gap in dropout risk between students from high-income families and their counterparts from lower-income families. These results stress the importance of considering the interplay between students’ backgrounds and several non-cognitive measures to increase school completion and minimize the effect of economic inequalities on educational outcomes. Implications for educators, school authorities, and policymakers will be discussed.