School belonging

Happy schoolchildren

The most commonly used definition of school belonging comes from a 1993 academic article by researchers Carol Goodenow and Kathleen Grady, who describe school belonging as "the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment."[1][2] The construct of school belonging involves feeling connected with and attached to one's school. It also encompasses involvement and affiliation with one's school community.[3][4][5] Conversely, students who do not feel a strong sense of belonging within their school environment are frequently described as being alienated or disaffected.[3] There are a number of terms within educational research that are used interchangeably with school belonging, including school connectedness, school attachment, and school engagement.[2][6][7]

School belonging is determined by a myriad of factors, including academic achievement and motivation, personal characteristics, social relationships, demographic characteristics, school climate, and participation in extracurricular activities.[2][4][8] Research indicates that school belonging has significant implications for students, as it has been consistently linked with academic outcomes, psychological adjustment, well-being, identity formation, mental health, and physical health—it is considered a fundamental aspect of students' development.[2][4][9][10] A sense of belonging to one's school is considered particularly important for adolescents because they are within a period of transition and identity formation, and research has found that school belonging significantly declines during this period.[4][8]

Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM), developed in 1993, is one of the measures to ascertain the degree to which students feel a sense of school belonging. Students rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with statements, such as "People here notice when I'm good at something." In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held an international convention where the Wingspread Declaration on School Connections was developed as a group of tactics to increase students' sense of belonging and connection with their school.

  1. ^ Goodenow, Carol; Grady, Kathleen E. (1993). "The Relationship of School Belonging and Friends' Values to Academic Motivation Among Urban Adolescent Students". The Journal of Experimental Education. 62 (1): 60–71. doi:10.1080/00220973.1993.9943831. ISSN 0022-0973.
  2. ^ a b c d Allen, Kelly-Ann; Kern, Margaret L. (2017). School Belonging in Adolescents: Theory, Research and Practice. SpringerBriefs in Psychology. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-5996-4. ISBN 978-981-10-5995-7. S2CID 158362521.
  3. ^ a b Willms, Jon D. (2003). Student Engagement at School: A Sense of Belonging and Participation: Results from PISA 2000. OECD. doi:10.1787/9789264018938-en. ISBN 978-92-64-01892-1.
  4. ^ a b c d Allen, Kelly-Ann; Vella-Brodrick, Dianne; Waters, Lea (2016). "Fostering School Belonging in Secondary Schools Using a Socio-Ecological Framework". The Educational and Developmental Psychologist. 33 (1): 97–121. doi:10.1017/edp.2016.5. ISSN 2059-0776.
  5. ^ Osterman, Karen F. (2000). "Students' Need for Belonging in the School Community". Review of Educational Research. 70 (3): 323–367. doi:10.3102/00346543070003323. ISSN 0034-6543. S2CID 145656681.
  6. ^ Allen, K. A.; Bowles, T. (2012). "Belonging as a Guiding Principle in the Education of Adolescents" (PDF). Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology. 12: 109 – via ERIC.
  7. ^ Libbey, H. P. (2004). "Measuring student relationships to school: Attachment, bonding, connectedness, and engagement". Journal of School Health. 74 (7): 274–283. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2004.tb08284.x. PMID 15493704.
  8. ^ a b Allen, Kelly; Kern, Margaret L.; Vella-Brodrick, Dianne; Hattie, John; Waters, Lea (2018). "What Schools Need to Know About Fostering School Belonging: a Meta-analysis". Educational Psychology Review. 30 (1): 1–34. doi:10.1007/s10648-016-9389-8. ISSN 1040-726X. S2CID 151358354.
  9. ^ Arslan, G.; Allen, K.; Ryan, T. (2020). "Exploring the Impacts of School Belonging on Youth Wellbeing and Mental Health]: A Longitudinal Study". Child Indicators Research. 13 (5): 1619–1635. doi:10.1007/s12187-020-09721-z. S2CID 213584348.
  10. ^ Abdollahi, A.; Panahipour, S.; Tafti, M. A.; Allen, K. A. (2020). "Academic hardiness as a mediator for the relationship between school belonging and academic stress". Psychology in the Schools. 111 (3): 345–351. doi:10.1080/00220671.2016.1261075. S2CID 151504643.