Student- and school-level factors related to school belongingness among high school students

Abstract

Sense of belonging to school has received considerable attention due to the importance of belonging needs in social life and its broad academic and non-academic consequences. However, there is a dearth of research that identifies its multilevel predictors. Thus, this study aimed to investigate student-level and school-level variables related to sense of belonging to the school. The target population was all high school students (n=25000) in Urmia in the academic year 2018-2019. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to determine the association between schoollevel and student-level variables. Findings of the study showed that student-level variables, such as socio-economic status, parental involvement, and peer support were related to sense of belonging to school. Moreover, school-level variables including sense of fairness and teacherstudent relations could explain the variance in school belonging.The results supported the idea that family, peers, and teachers play significant roles in the school experiences of students.

Contributions of Individual, Family, and School Characteristics to Chilean Students’ Social Well-Being at School

“…Although studies on social well-being within these age groups are increasing, only a dozen of more than 2,000 studies published in Web of Science from 2004 to 2021 take on a social-ecological approach and include children and adolescents' joint evaluation of their families, schools, and peers. This approach has an important theoretical contribution by helping comprehend the complexity of children and adolescents' well-being, which is strongly determined by the school context and by significant others (Chu et al, 2010;Tomyn and Cummins, 2011;Alfaro et al, 2015;Ahmadi and Ahmadi, 2019;Ahmadi et al, 2020). The findings from this study allow a deeper theoretical comprehension of the specific role of each ecological frame that is involved in the social well-being of students.…”

“…These findings suggest that the school should be interpreted as a system, wherein its sustainability depends on the well-being of the entire community (Shirley et al, 2020). Considering well-being as a collective and not just an individual phenomenon (Alfaro et al, 2015;Harding et al, 2019;Ahmadi et al, 2020;Shirley et al, 2020) opens an important venue for fostering students' well-being, through encouraging elements that contribute to teachers' well-being. Surprisingly, there is a scarcity of research linking the evidence on teachers' work and working conditions (Maldonado and Cornejo, 2020) to students' school well-being and belongingness.…”

“…Recent research on well-being in the school context shows that it is not only about schools caring for and catering to the development and well-being of their students but also about students feeling that they belong to and feel attached to their schools and students perceiving the necessary agency to assume that they can make significant contributions to their schools (Khoury-Kassabri et al, 2004). In this sense, the literature on SWS can be closely related to the literature on school belongingness (Boston and Warren, 2017;Ahmadi et al, 2020), in the sense that both constructs posit the need for students to feel that they belong to and feel engaged with their schools. However, the construct of social wellbeing highlights the need to provide opportunities that may make students feel not only engaged but also a significant part of and contributor to their schools, highlighting the role of students' agency and participation.…”

“…For children and adolescents, K-12 schooling is usually the first space for socialization and learning of social interaction outside the family (Oyarzún et al, 2017). In schools, the relational patterns learned in neighborhood contexts and cultural groups tend to be applied and reproduced (Ahmadi et al, 2020). The possibility of a positive school experience, then, is inscribed in a healthy ecological environment that favors a comprehensive curriculum for the development of all types of skills, including socioemotional learning, in the framework of a school culture that cares about the quality of life of its community, both individually and collectively (Benbenishty and Astor, 2005;Shirley et al, 2020).…”

Construction and Validation of Institutional Identity Scale for University Students

“…The literature provides evidence for additional aspects as core elements of institutional identities, such as the member's personal choice of becoming involved in an institution [17] and the characteristics of the people in the institution [18]. The year of education, selection of roommates [19], perceived fairness, and relationship with the teachers [20] are additional factors in determining belongingness with institutes among students. Based on the literature, we can consider these crucial elements for developing an institutional identity among university students.…”