Academic citizenship behaviors as a means of meeting students' psychological motivational needs and enhancing their academic engagement

The extent to which students are academically engaged creates a motivational context that shapes how they handle academic difficulties and recover from failure. Unfortunately, student disengagement is a growing concern in higher education, with a significant proportion of undergraduates dropping out in their first year. The present study investigates, in a sample of French undergraduates, how students' academic citizenship behaviors (ACB), and the ACB they perceive in others, could help prevent student disengagement and promote engagement through the satisfaction of students' psychological needs. Participants completed an online survey in which they were asked first to indicate their ACB and perceived ACB among other students at their university, then to estimate satisfaction and frustration with their psychological needs, and finally to report their mental withdrawal from higher education, as well as academic disengagement and engagement. Results indicated that students' ACB are associated with less mental withdrawal from higher education, less behavioral disengagement and greater academic engagement. These effects are mediated by the satisfaction and (the absence of) frustration of students' psychological needs. ACB perceived in others, however, had mixed effects on students' outcomes, with different direct and indirect effects. Overall, these findings support the potential of ACB as a new means of improving the quality of student motivation. ACB prevent students' disengagement and promote their engagement through satisfaction of psychological needs. The findings also highlight the gradual process of disengagement by demonstrating the relationships between its psychological and behavioral aspects.