The amount of time students spend on the school bus affects their academic engagement with the school, their classmates and their teachers

According to data from the National Statistics Institute, 24 million school transport journeys take place in Spain every year. A team of professors from the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló has conducted a study showing that the time students spend traveling to their schools, especially on long bus rides, can negatively affect their academic engagement. This lower engagement can also have emotional and social consequences.

The data revealed that students who spend more time commuting report lower engagement than those who arrive sooner. Engagement is understood as the student’s involvement or connection with their academic goals, and it comprises three different but interrelated dimensions: affective-emotional, cognitive and behavioral. In the case of secondary and upper secondary students, it is important to consider that they face numerous challenges, which require developing skills and competencies that enhance their learning, an aspect closely linked to academic engagement.

“We believe they experience a more negative relationship with their place of study, which may affect their interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers (affective-emotional engagement), their psychological involvement in the teaching and learning process—such as motivation to learn, expectations, or the effort to understand complex ideas and skills (cognitive engagement)—and their overall participation and effort (behavioral engagement)”, the researchers explain.

The research team consisted of Laura Abellán Roselló, from the Learning Difficulties Research Group, and Pablo Marco Dols and Javier Soriano Martí, from the Interuniversity Institute of Geography. They recently published the scientific article "Afectación de la duración de la ruta de transporte escolar en el compromiso académico (engagement) de estudiantes de educación secundaria obligatoria y bachillerato" (Impact of school bus route duration on the academic engagement of secondary and upper secondary students) in issue 410 of the Revista de Educación.

The study sample included 470 students from compulsory secondary education (ESO) and upper secondary education (bachillerato) at IES La Vall d’Alba and IES Serra d’Espadà in Onda, both located in the province of Castelló. Of these, 232 were male (49.4%) and 238 female (50.6%), aged between 13 and 21 years. The school in La Vall d’Alba had nine bus routes, the longest covering 55.16 km each way, while Onda had four routes, with the longest measuring 52.9 km. In terms of commuting time, 33.8% of students took less than 15 minutes to arrive, 28.9% between 16 and 30 minutes, 22.2% between 31 and 60 minutes, and 15.1% more than 61 minutes.

According to the research team, "the study can serve as a basis to help teachers develop and promote strategies to prevent the lack of academic engagement caused by the time students spend commuting to school". Furthermore, "it can provide valuable insights for designing effective teaching projects in rural schools, improving satisfaction and academic performance outcomes", which should be accompanied by "professional development opportunities for teachers, such as workshops on positive attitudes and self-confidence, since such training has a positive impact on teachers and their good practices".

Article: Abellán-Roselló, L., Marco-Dols, P., & Soriano-Martí, J. (2025). "Afectación de la duración de la ruta de transporte escolar en el compromiso académico (engagement) de estudiantes de educación secundaria obligatoria y bachillerato". Revista de Educación, 410, 275–294. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2025-410-714.