Bidirectional Relationships Between School Connectedness and Internalizing Symptoms During Early Adolescence

Abstract

School connectedness is an important feature to consider within the school environment because it likely accounts for why some youth thrive and others struggle with internalizing problems. Furthermore, internalizing problems typically do not occur in isolation of each other, but rather anxiety and depressive symptoms frequently co-occur and increase subsequent risk for each other. As such, the primary study objectives were to (a) evaluate the bidirectional relationships between school connectedness and internalizing symptoms and (b) examine whether being at high risk of an anxiety disorder or major depression moderated these relationships. Adolescents attending public middle schools ( N = 1,344; 11-14 years; 51% female; 52% White) completed surveys in school at baseline and at a 6-month follow-up. Baseline anxiety disorder risk status moderated the relationships between school connectedness and internalizing symptoms. Among adolescents at low risk of an anxiety disorder, higher baseline school connectedness predicted improvements in depressive symptoms and, conversely, higher baseline depressive symptoms predicted lower school connectedness. School connectedness and depressive symptoms were unrelated among adolescents at high risk of an anxiety disorder. There were no significant associations between school connectedness and anxiety symptoms, regardless of baseline risk for major depression. Implications for school-based intervention strategies are discussed, such as fostering school connectedness and screening for internalizing problems.

Distress Among Adolescents: An Exploration of Mattering, Social Media Addiction, and School Connectedness

“…Adolescents spend a great deal of time in the school environment; therefore, researchers consider school-related constructs when exploring this population. For example, researchers established relationships between school connectedness (Klinck et al, 2020) and a sense of significance (Marshall & Tilton-Weaver, 2019) with mental health concerns among adolescents. Our results corroborated previous findings in which higher levels of mattering were associated with fewer anxiety/depressive symptoms.…”

“…Additionally, higher levels of depression at baseline predicted lower levels of school connectedness at the second timepoint. Moreover, school connectedness demonstrated significant, negative correlations with both anxiety and depression at baseline (Klinck et al, 2020). Therefore, it appears that adolescents' sense of belonging to their school environment can influence their experience of mental health symptomatology.…”

“…Among 152 Australian adolescents (12-18 years old), researchers found a negative correlation between depression and school connectedness (large effect size, r = À.70) and a stronger impact of school connectedness on depressive symptoms than parental attachment (Shochet et al, 2008). Finally, Klinck et al (2020) studied depression, anxiety, and school connectedness among a large sample of American adolescents (11-14 years old) and found a bidirectional relationship between school connectedness and depression. Specifically, high levels of school connectedness at baseline predicted lower levels of depression at the second time point (6 months later).…”

“…Specifically, given the ubiquitous nature of the internet and the growing prevalence of problematic social media use among adolescent populations (Banyai et al, 2017), it is essential to examine these factors in relation to adolescent mental health. Additionally, adolescents' psychological well-being has been correlated with both their connection to school (Klinck et al, 2020) and their perceived sense of significance in the world (Marshall & Tilton-Weaver, 2019), making school connectedness and mattering important constructs to investigate as well. The simultaneous examination of social media addiction, school connectedness, and mattering will contribute to our understanding of adolescent mental health.…”

The Development of Internalizing Behaviors in Early Adolescence: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The findings from this special issue represent new steps in furthering the knowledge about the emergence and maintenance of internalizing psychopathology. Klinck, Vannucci, and Ohannessian (2020) examined school connectedness as a particular factor contributing to internalizing problems by evaluating the transactional effects between the two in a sample of U.S. early adolescents. Adolescents with low risk for an anxiety disorder improved in depressive symptoms when they had higher baseline levels of school connectedness, but there were no links between the latter for high-risk adolescents.…”