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

• Main Authors: Soheila Ahmadi, Mohammad Hassani, Farid Ahmadi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Adolescence and Youth
• Subjects: sense of school belonging; socio-economic status; parental involvement; academic-self efficacy; sense of fairness; school autonomy
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2020.1730200

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 school-level 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 teacher-student 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.