The personal and contextual contributors to school belongingness among primary school students

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 15;10(4):e0123353. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123353. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

School belongingness has gained currency among educators and school health professionals as an important determinant of adolescent health. The current cross-sectional study presents the 15 most significant personal and contextual factors that collectively explain 66.4% (two-thirds) of the variability in 12-year old students' perceptions of belongingness in primary school. The study is part of a larger longitudinal study investigating the factors associated with student adjustment in the transition from primary to secondary school. The study found that girls and students with disabilities had higher school belongingness scores than boys, and their typically developing counterparts respectively; and explained 2.5% of the variability in school belongingness. The majority (47.1% out of 66.4%) of the variability in school belongingness was explained by student personal factors, such as social acceptance, physical appearance competence, coping skills, and social affiliation motivation; followed by parental expectations (3% out of 66.4%), and school-based factors (13.9% out of 66.4%) such as, classroom involvement, task-goal structure, autonomy provision, cultural pluralism, and absence of bullying. Each of the identified contributors of primary school belongingness can be shaped through interventions, system changes, or policy reforms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Child
  • Children with Disabilities / psychology
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intellectual Disability / psychology
  • Linear Models
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Models, Psychological
  • Parents / psychology
  • Physical Appearance, Body
  • Schools / statistics & numerical data*
  • Sex Factors
  • Social Environment*
  • Students / psychology*
  • Western Australia

Grants and funding

This project was funded by a Doctoral scholarship provided by the Centre for Research into Disability and Society and the School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Australia. It was part of a larger study that was awarded the 2007 Social Determinants for Health Research award by Healthway Australia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.