ORIGINAL PAPER School Engagement of Youth Investigated by Child Welfare Services: Associations with Academic Achievement and Mental Health Skyler Leonard 1 • Allison A. Stiles 1 • Omar G. Gudin ˜o 1 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Youth who have experienced abuse, neglect, or are involved with child welfare services are at significant risk of low academic achievement and poor mental health outcomes. The literature on children involved with child welfare services has typically focused on the impact of individual, home, and community factors, but less research has considered the impact of school engagement on mal- treated youth outcomes. This study utilized data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to examine the potential main effect of school engagement on youth academic achievement and mental health in a lon- gitudinal national sample of youth who were the subject of a child welfare investigation. Predicting that school engagement would be especially critical for youth who are removed from home, this study also examined whether school engagement moderated the effect of home place- ment instability on youth outcomes. Results of hierarchal regression analyses showed that school engagement was an independent predictor of youth internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and academic achievement in reading and math after controlling for initial symptoms/ achievement levels and relevant covariates. School engagement did not significantly moderate the association between home instability and youth outcomes. Directions for future research are discussed. Keywords Child welfare Á Maltreatment Á School engagement Á Mental health Á Academic achievement Introduction While there is variation in the definition of resilience, overall, the literature suggests that resilience is made up of factors and processes in human development ‘‘that enhance the experience of well-being among individuals who face significant adversity’’ (Ungar, 2011). One such factor that is positively and significantly related to functioning better than would be expected, even for children at high risk of mal- adaptation, is school engagement (Finn & Rock, 1997; Finn & Zimmer, 2012). School engagement is an important pre- dictor of youth academic (Blumenfeld, Fredricks, & Paris, 2004) and mental health outcomes (Upadyaya & Salmela- Aro, 2013) in community samples. For children at high risk of maltreatment, however, is the potential benefit of school engagement overshadowed by overall high levels of adver- sity or, does school engagement emerge as an even more robust predictor of adjustment under adversity? School set- tings provide an environment that can be regulated by policy, monitored by professionals, and in which interventions can be implemented strategically. Therefore, investigating the associations between school engagement and adjustment for youth at high risk of experiencing maltreatment is critical. Youth investigated by the child welfare system face unique life stressors, including abuse and neglect, that put them at an enhanced risk of poor academic functioning (Crozier & Barth, 2005; Lambros et al., 2010). In This study utilized data from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being, which was developed under contract with the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. The data have been provided by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. The information and opinions expressed herein reflect solely the position of the authors. Nothing herein should be construed to indicate the support or endorsement of its content by ACYF/DHHS. & Skyler Leonard Skyler.Leonard@du.edu 1 Department of Psychology, University of Denver, 2155 S. Race St., Denver, CO 80208, USA 123 School Mental Health DOI 10.1007/s12310-016-9186-z