Best friends, bad food, and bullying: How students’ school perceptions relate to sense of school belonging

Abstract

A positive school climate and sense of school belonging can influence students' academic outcomes and wellbeing in desirable ways. However, not enough is known about the aspects of school climate that influence students' feelings of belonging and how gender, ethnicity, and grade may relate to those feelings. Via a self-administered survey, a diverse sample of middle school students (n = 1,226) reported what they perceived as the best parts of their school and the parts most in need of improvement, as well as their sense of belonging. Students' perceptions of their school were aligned with the major areas of school climate: safety, relationships, teaching and learning, and institutional environment. These four areas were found to be predictive of sense of belonging to different degrees, such as listing relationships as needing improvement at the school being associated with lower scores in sense of belonging. Gender and grade were also found to be salient predictors of feelings of belonging, with seventh and eighth graders feeling less belonging than their sixth grade peers and girls having lower sense of belonging than boys. These findings affirm the importance of the school environment in influencing students' feelings of being a part of their school. 1 | INTRODUCTION Anyone who had to move and switch schools as a teenager knows that sense of belonging is an important psychological need, particularly during adolescence, when interpersonal relationships take on greater importance (Eccles et al., 1993). However, not all settings foster a sense of belonging in their inhabitants. Despite being one of

School belonging mediates the association between negative school climate and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents: a national population-based longitudinal study

“…A previous cross-sectional study in Scotland found that an inclusive school climate was significantly and positively associated with higher school belonging (Long et al, 2021). A U.S. study of middle school students also found that four dimensions of students' perceived school climate-safety, relationships, teaching and learning, and school environment-predicted varying degrees of school belonging (Renick and Reich, 2021). These studies support our finding of an association between a negative school climate and school belonging.…”

Factors of a Sense of School Belonging: Bronfenbrenner’s Theoretical Model as a Starting Framework for Interpretation

“…For example, findings on gender differences regarding the sense of school belonging are quite inconsistent, and some research results indicate that the sense of school belonging is more pronounced in female students (Allen & Kern, 2017;Nuttman-Shwartz, 2019). Others present findings in favour of male students (CESE, 2020;Renick & Reich, 2020), or find that differences do not exist (Cemalcilar, 2010). Although the age of students has not been particularly examined in the context of significant factors, there is evidence that the sense of school belonging decreases linearly with age, so that high school students report the lowest level (Anderman, 2003;Renick & Reich, 2020).…”

The relationship between perceptions of school climate and internet gaming disorder of teenage students: A moderated mediation model

“…The main source of individuals’ maladaptive cognition is the irrational cognition toward themselves and the irrational cognition toward the world ( Mai et al, 2012 ). Previous studies show that a good social support system would contribute to the formation of individuals’ positive cognition such as a sense of belonging and wellbeing ( Borkar, 2016 ; Gabriella et al, 2020 ; Renick and Reich, 2020 ; Zhou, 2020 ). On the contrary, individuals with childhood trauma and social exclusion are more likely to hold negative cognition and emotional experience toward the world and themselves ( Choi et al, 2020 ; Angelakis and Gooding, 2022 ), which promotes individuals to explore a new path to escape from the old environment, where they can establish their new identity and satisfy themselves.…”