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Engagement is not Enough: Examining Campus Engagement and Success Among Lower-Income First-Year Students
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Engagement is not Enough: Examining Campus Engagement and Success Among Lower-Income First-Year Students

Lauren Irwin, Shinji Katsumoto, N. F. Tennessen and Nicholas A. Bowman
Innovative higher education
02/28/2026
DOI: 10.1007/s10755-026-09881-w

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Abstract

Prevailing perspectives in higher education frame campus engagement as integral to student learning and success. However, college students who hold minoritized identities may not experience campus engagement in desired ways, which can then shape whether and how engagement leads to academic and psychosocial outcomes. The present study examined the extent to which participation in 10 different forms of co-curricular and academic engagement predicts various indicators of psychosocial and academic success among first-year, lower-income students using a multi-institutional, longitudinal dataset. A series of multiple regression analyses examined the extent to which the 10 forms of engagement predicted psychosocial and academic outcomes within a multi-institutional sample of lower-income students. Engagement was virtually unrelated to any of these outcomes; to the extent that significant results were observed, most of these found that engagement was associated with worse outcomes. Some differences in these relationships were apparent, such that the link between engagement and success was often more unfavorable for Black students than for other groups of racially minoritized or white students. Future inquiries should include multiple measures of the quantity and quality of engagement and center nonbinary and Black students from lower-income backgrounds. Additionally, we challenge the common wisdom that positions engagement as a panacea for student success. Educators should be cautious about the types of engagement to which they direct students, especially minoritized students, as engagement may only further isolation, marginalization, and discrimination. We encourage educators to review these findings and critically examine existing engagement opportunities.
 Student engagement Student success Socioeconomic status Social class Low-income students

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