School engagement occupies a place of reference in recent educational psychology research owing to its potential to address poor school results and school dropout rates. However, there is a need for a unifying theoretical framework. The study proposed the characterization of school engagement and explored the extent to which different profiles are associated with academic performance and self-regulation. With a sample of 717 5th and 6th year primary school students, this study was carried out via the latent profile analysis (LPA). Two groups of low school engaged students—one characterized by low behavioral engagement (5.02%) and the other by low emotional engagement (6.55%)—were distinguished. The majority of participants showed moderately high (31.95%) or moderate (56.48%) levels of school engagement in its three dimensions. Students with high engagement had the best grades and managed their time and study surroundings better, were the most strategic in seeking information, and showed less maladaptive regulatory behavior. The differences between students exhibiting low behavioral and emotional engagement and those exhibiting moderate levels in these dimensions may center upon the management of contextual resources and management of information and help. This research supports the need to approach the study of school engagement by observing the combination of its emotional, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions.

The interest of assigning homework is frequently discussed due to its alleged low impact on student achievement. One of the current lines of research is to emphasize the quality of student homework engagement rather than the amount of time spent on homework. The aim of this study was to determine (a) the extent to which students’ prior achievement affects their homework engagement (i.e., time spent, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done), and (b) how students’ intrinsic motivation toward homework may mediate or moderate the relationship between prior achievement and the homework engagement variables. A large sample of students from the first 4 years of Secondary Education (N = 1899) completed questionnaires. The results showed that intrinsic motivation partially mediates, but does not moderate, the effect of prior achievement on the three variables related to homework engagement (time spent, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done). These results highlight the importance of considering both students’ current level of achievement and their motivation toward homework engagement when assigning homework.

The main aim of this study was to analyse possible differences in academic wellbeing on the basis of prior academic achievement in mathematics. We conceptualised wellbeing as a multidimensional construct covering both negative indicators, namely, anxiety and negative feelings, and positive indicators, namely, perceived competence, perceived utility, and mastery motivation. Success in mathematics is expected to be associated with better academic wellbeing. The sample consisted of 897 students from the fifth and sixth years of primary school (50.2% boys and 49.8% girls). Results suggested that success in mathematics is linked to a student’s academic wellbeing, in such a way that perceived competence in the subject, perception of usefulness of mathematical content, and mastery motivation was higher in students with better previous performance. Anxiety and negative feelings were also lower when success in mathematics increased. Considering the particular anxiety–self-efficacy interaction suggested by previous research, we concluded that a good way to change negative academic wellbeing would be to increase successful experiences to foster perceived competence, especially in students with high academic anxiety.

This study responds to the need to explore the individual characteristics that may help us to understand the levels of stress involved in the significant COVID-19-related restrictions to people’s daily lives. In order to understand levels of stress and stress control during the COVID-19 confinement, 1269 people from Spain (17.5% men) aged between 18 and 70 completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). The results indicated that people aged under 40, and especially those under 25, women, and those on low incomes reported higher rates of confinement stress. The nature of where people live, and their working situation during confinement also contributed to people’s stress response, although with lower levels of impact. In this context, our study suggests that the levels of stress in those who combine remote working with in situ working were lower than those who had other working conditions. Our study contributes significant information to understanding the effects of confinement, and its results may be used to inform intervention tools and programs.

The Internet and social networks are widely used by students. For higher education, which operates in a highly competitive environment, marketing is a fundamental tool for universities to distinguish themselves and attract new students. Social networks are one of the best options for influencing university choice. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between some indicators related to universities and their use of and results on social networks. We carried out quantitative correlational research to study the number of students and ranking position as university indicators as well as the number of followers, posts, and interactions (likes, comments, and shares) weekly and per post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Data were collected from 83 Spanish universities over 14 weeks in 2021. Correlation analysis showed that the number of students is closely related to the number of followers and interactions, although to varying degrees. The position of a university in the rankings exhibited a particularly significant correlation with their number of followers on almost all the networks. In addition, the higher the university in the ranking, the higher the number of interactions per post that it obtained on Facebook and Twitter. It was also found that universities with more followers had more interactions (likes, comments, and shares) with their posts. Finally, the number of posts was found to be positively related to the interactions per week but not to the interactions per post. This study has identified some significant relationships between the characteristics of all Spanish universities and their performance on four social networks, which may help universities become better at acting and communicating on them.

MITCA (homework implementation method) was born with the purpose of turning homework into an educational resource capable of improving the self-regulation of learning and the school engagement of students. In this article, following the current theoretical framework, we evaluate the impact of the MITCA method on school engagement in students in the 5th and 6th years of Primary Education. While the control group of students who did not participate in the 12 weeks of MITCA (N = 431; 61% of 5th grade) worsened significantly in emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, these pre-post differences do not reach significance for the group that has participated in MITCA, even observing a tendency to improve. After the intervention, the students who participated in MITCA (N = 533; 50.6% of 5th grade) reported greater emotional and behavioral engagement than the students in the control group. MITCA students showed positive emotions, were happier in school and were more interested in the classroom, paid more attention in class, and were more attentive to school rules. The conditions of the tasks’ prescription proposed by MITCA would not only restrain the lack of engagement but would also improve students’ emotional and behavioral engagement in school found in the last years of Primary Education. In the light of the results, a series of educational strategies related to the characteristics of these tasks, such as the frequency of prescription and the type of correction are proposed.