Student engagement and school connectedness are interrelated and overlapping concepts that are essential to promoting positive youth development and well-being for students, families, and teachers. Affective engagement is reflected in students’ relationships with their peers, teachers, and the school environment, which are related to important outcomes like achievement, school completion, and postsecondary success. These relationships have long been viewed as being important or essential to the academic and behavioral success of students. Intervention research conducted from early childhood through adolescence suggests that affective engagement can be altered through different approaches with different targets; this includes student mentoring, teacher training and feedback, brief cognitive interventions, and grade-level or schoolwide programming. Teachers’ and students’ affective engagement will continue to be an important area for research and intervention.
