To explore the effects of potential categories of cumulative ecological risk on academic engagement, so as to provide theoretical basis for promoting academic engagement among vocational college students.

In May 2024, a convenience sampling method was used to select 1 666 students from three grades of six vocational colleges in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. A survey was conducted on the cumulative ecological risk and academic engagement, and latent profile analysis was used to explore the potential categories of cumulative ecological risk and test its effect on academic engagement.

There were four latent classes of cumulative ecological risk among vocational college students, namely, complete family-low risk group, complete family-medium risk group, incomplete family-medium risk group, complete family-moderate to high risk group, accounting for 11.8%, 44.8%, 21.0% and 22.4%. There were significant differences in academic engagement among different potential categories of cumulative ecological risk of students (F=138.03, P<0.01), with the highest level of academic engagement in the complete family-low risk group (102.95±15.74), followed by the complete family-medium risk group (87.67±14.26), incomplete family-medium risk group (84.53±19.25) and complete family-moderate to high risk group (73.24±20.13). The potential categories of cumulative ecological risk significantly predicted academic engagement (P<0.01). When the complete family-low risk group was used as a reference, the regression coefficients for the complete family-medium risk, incomplete family-medium risk, and complete family-moderate to high risk were -0.40, -0.40 and -0.65, respectively.

The potential categories of cumulative ecological risks among vocational college students significantly predict their academic engagement, and vocational colleges need to pay attention to the cumulative ecological risks and different potential categories of students when promoting their academic engagement.