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08 SES 08 A: Inequalities in School Belonging and Satisfaction
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08. Health and Wellbeing Education
Paper School Climate, Ethnic Discrimination and School Belonging: A Multifaceted Exploration of Diverse Students' Sense of Belonging 1University of Belgrade - Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Serbia; 2State University of New York, Old Westbury, USA; 3University of Belgrade - Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology Presenting Author:Educational contexts serve as significant agents of socialization, contributing to the development of not only academic skills but also of a diverse range of socio-emotional competencies. Simultaneously, these environments function as arenas where instances of peer violence, discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability, among other biases, are prevalent. These challenges affect a considerable number of students, potentially leading to mental health issues and contributing to school absenteeism or dropout. PISA results demonstrated that 17 to 40% 15-year-olds are dissatisfied with school and that one in four adolescents have low feelings of belongingness (Willms, 2003). School belonging is defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow & Grady, 1993, p. 80). School belonging is influenced by a variety of individual factors such as gender, ethnicity/ race and ethnic identification, self-esteem, personality, social skills, as well as external factors, such as school climate and teacher support (Ahmadi & Ahmadi, 2020; Allen et al., 2023; Slaten et al., 2016; Watson et al., 2020). More specifically, studies suggest that the meaning of belonging may be different for students of different ethnicities who experience differential levels of discrimination (Murphy & Zirkel, 2015), which consequently affects their sense of school belonging (Brown & Tam, 2019). Some studies that compared school belonging between immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents pointed to higher school belonging among immigrant students (e.g. Allen et al., 2021), while others showed the opposite (e.g. Bottiani et al., 2017). A person’s socioeconomic status (SES) is also associated with the school belonging (Allen et al., 2023). As for the gender differences, some studies reported no differences (e.g. Sanchez et al., 2005), while the others revealed that girls have a higher sense of belonging (e.g., Smerdon, 2002). Previous studies demonstrated that perceived safety, healthy norms concerning bullying, teacher social and academic support and teacher-student relationship are positively correlated with school belonging (Slaten et al., 2016). School belonging is related to both academic success and students’ prosocial behaviour and wellbeing (Arslan, 2021; Prati & Cicognani, 2021; Slaten et al., 2016). Therefore, for scholars, educational policy makers, and practitioners it is of utmost importance to explore school belonging and determine ways in which it can be improved. This study was conducted within the project “Narrativization of ethnic identities of adolescents from culturally dominant and minority backgrounds, and the role of the school context” (NIdEA), supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (grant number 1518). It relied on the Bronfebrenner’s ecological model of human development, and its adaptation from Allen and associates (2016) who place the students at the center of the model and assert that their sense of belonging is either fostered or hindered by their experience with different layers. Microsystem entails teacher, peer and parent support, while the mesosystem includes school policy, practices and extracurricular activities. The exosystem includes influences from the neighbourhood and extended family, while the macrolevel refers to broader societal factors such as history, social climate and legislation (Allen et al., 2016). Our study aimed to determine if the individual’s sociodemographic variables and certain micro-, meso- and exo-system factors can predict secondary school students’ sense of school belonging. More specifically, we explored gender, SES and ethnic status in the society (majority or minority) as personal factors, and different aspects of school climate, bullying, and ethnicity-based discrimination as school- and community-related factors of school belonging. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used Instruments. For this paper we used a single-item 5-point Likert type measure of school belonging (“I feel I belong to this school”). To assess school climate, we utilized the four-point Likert-type Delaware School Climate Scale (DSCS), version for students (Bear et al., 2011), consisting of 31 items and five subscales: (1) Teacher – Student Relations; (2) Student–Student Relations; (3) Clarity of Expectations; (4) Fairness of Rules, and (5) School Safety. In addition, the student version includes Student Engagement and Bullying subscale. The DSCS’ subscales demonstrated good reliability in our study, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .622 to .783. Relying on different models and scales measuring ethnicity-based discrimination, we designed a 16-item five-point Likert-type scale assessing discrimination by peers, teachers, the institution (school as a whole), and community. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from .719 to .791. Students reported their SES on a multiple-choice question (1 standing for „We barely cover expenses for food”, and 6 – „We have enough money for a luxurious life, including traveling to exotic destinations and investing”). Because there were not many participants involved, we merged the two lowest categories into one for further analyses, so the variable we used had five categories. We asked about participants' gender through a multiple-choice question with categories: Male, Female, and Other. For the sake of this paper, we only used the first two categories. For the purposes of this paper, we categorized participants into four ethnic categories, including ethnic majority (Serbian) and three most represented minorities in Serbia (Hungarian, Bosniak, and Roma). Procedure and participants. We selected 20 schools (six general and 14 vocational secondary schools) from multiethnic regions. All students were informed about the research and after providing informed consents they filled out the questionnaires in their native languages. Final sample consisted of 904 students, (Mage = 16.24, SD = 1.05, with 51.6% females). More than two thirds (69.9%) identified as Serbian (ethnic majority), 10.8% as Hungarian, 11.1% as Bosniak, and 8.2% as Roma. Data Analysis. After descriptive statistic, we applied a hierarchical multiple regression analysis with school belonging being a criterion variable and the predictor variables being: students’ gender, SES and ethnic status (Model 1), teacher-student relations, student-student relations, clarity of expectations, fairness of rules, school engagement, bullying, discrimination by teachers, discrimination by peers and school-wide discrimination (Model 2), and discrimination in the community (Model 3). Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings Students demonstrated a relatively high level of school belonging (M = 2.97, SD = .909) and positive perceptions of school climate (highest scores for Clarity of expectations M = 3.07, SD = .58). Ethnicity-based discrimination from teachers was assessed as the highest (M = 2.08, SD = .9), while the one from the community was the lowest (M = 1.58, SD = .86). The results showed that only the second model was significant (F(10, 677) = 17.895, p = .000, R2 = .217), with teacher-student relations (b = -.153 , t = -3.539, p = .000), clarity of expectations (b =.111, t = 2.644, p = .008), fairness of rules (b = .099, t = 2.054, p = .040), school safety (b = .090, t = 2.188, p = .029), student engagement (b = .229, t = 4.164, p = .000) and bullying (b = .139, t = 3.500, p = .000) being significant predictors. Neither gender, SES, ethnic status, nor discrimination in the community were significantly associated with school belonging. Our results support previous findings about lack of gender differences in school belonging (Sanchez et al., 2005) but contradict those which assert relevance of SES and ethnicity for school belonging (Allen et al., 2021; 2023). We assume that contextual factors (e.g., status of certain ethnic minority groups at the national and local community level, the level of socioeconomic development of the community and school) should be considered when studying the role of these variables. School factors, on the other hand, proved to be relevant, especially those related to bullying, teacher-student relationship, and students’ engagement. Bronfenbrenner’s model proved to be a useful framework for understanding the predictors of school belonging, but future studies should include more factors from the exosystem and preferably use a more comprehensive measure of school belonging. References Allen, K. A., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Waters, L. (2016). Fostering school belonging in secondary schools using a socio-ecological framework. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 33(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2016.5 Allen, K., Fortune, K. C., & Arslan, G. (2021). Testing the social-ecological factors of school belonging in native-born, first-generation, and second-generation Australian students: A comparison study. Social Psychology of Education, 24, 835–856. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09634-x Allen, K., Cordoba, B. G., Ryan, T., Arslan, G., Slaten, et al. (2023). Examining predictors of school belonging using a socio-ecological perspective. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32, 2804‒2819 Arslan, G. (2021) School belongingness, well-being, and mental health among adolescents: exploring the role of loneliness. Australian Journal of Psychology,73(1), 70-80, https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1904499. Bear, G. G., Gaskins, C., Blank, J., & Chen, F. F. (2011). Delaware School Climate Survey-Student: its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability. Journal of school psychology, 49(2), 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2011.01.001 Bottiani, J. H., Bradshaw, C. P., & Mendelson, T. (2017). A multilevel examination of racial disparities in high school discipline: Black and white adolescents’ perceived equity, school belonging, and adjustment problems. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(4), 532 545. ‒ https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/edu0000155 Brown, C. S., & Tam, M. (2019). Ethnic discrimination predicting academic attitudes for Latinx students in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 65, 101061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101061 Goodenow, C., & Grady, K. E. (1993). The relationship of school belonging and friends’ values to academic motivation among urban adolescent students. Journal of Experimental Education, 62(1), 60–71. Murphy, M. C., & Zirkel, S. (2015). Race and belonging in school: How anticipated and experienced belonging affect choice, persistence, and performance. Teachers College Record, 117(12), 1–40. Prati, G., & Cicognani, E. (2021). School sense of community as a predictor of well-being among students: A longitudinal study. Current Psychology, 40(2), 939‒943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0017-2 Sanchez, B., Colon, Y., & Esparza, P. (2005). The Role of Sense of School Belonging and Gender in the Academic Adjustment of Latino Adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34(6), 619–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-005-8950-4 Slaten, C. D., Ferguson J. K, Allen, K-A, Brodrick, D-V, Waters, L. (2016). School Belonging: A Review of the History, Current Trends, and Future Directions. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 33(1), 1–15. doi:10.1017/edp.2016.6 Smerdon, B. (2002). Students’ perceptions of membership in their high schools. Sociology of Education, 75(4), 287–305. Willms, J.D. (2003), Student Engagement at School: A Sense of Belonging and Participation: Results from PISA 2000. OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264h018938-en 08. Health and Wellbeing Education
Paper Positive School Experience as a Protective Factor That Enhances Overall Life Satisfaction of LGBT Upper Secondary Students ISRZ, Croatia Presenting Author:The importance of supporting students’ well-being is highlighted in many empirical studies and policy documents (e.g. Cefai et al., 2021; Deighton et al., 2019) and school context is singled out as an important environment in which this is possible to do (Pulimeno et al., 2020). Data on LGBT adolescent mental health inequalities point to even more support needed for the LGBT students in schools given their lower well-being compared to other students (McDermott et al., 2023). Our study is situated within the minority stress model that posits that sexual minorities face unique and hostile stressors associated with being a sexual minority, resulting in a negative impact on their health and well-being (Meyer, 2003). The model distinguishes distal (prejudice, discrimination or violence) and proximal (specific experiences of sexual minorities such as hiding one's sexual orientation, expectation of rejection, or internalized homonegativity) stressors related to belonging to a minority group. Furthermore, the assumption is that social support and a sense of connection with others can have a positive effect on mental health and alleviate feelings of stress. Studies indeed show that school climate can significantly influence the well-being of LGBT students. For example, when the school climate is hostile towards LGBT students or ignores them, they are more likely to experience homophobic bullying, which can severely reduce their well-being, feelings of being safe in school and their academic outcomes (Kosciw et al., 2016). However, a supportive school climate can be a protective factor for LGBT students’ well-being (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2014). The aim of this study is to investigate how school experience moderates the relationship between sexual orientation and overall life satisfaction among upper secondary students. The following research hypotheses will be addressed: 1) LGBT students are less satisfied with their life than their heterosexual counterparts; 2) students’ favourable school experience (higher academic self-efficacy, higher sense of belonging at school, higher perceived quality of student-teacher relations and lower perception of teacher unfairness) positively predicts their life satisfaction; 3) students’ favourable school experience moderates the relationship between sexual orientation and life satisfaction: more specifically, a positive school experience acts as a protective factor, enhancing overall life satisfaction, with a more pronounced impact observed among LGBT students. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The research was conducted in 2022 as a part of the project “Thematic Network for Lifelong Learning Available to All (TEMCO)” co-funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund. Online questionnaire was administered during class to second-year upper secondary students (aged 15-16) from 20 randomly chosen schools in the City of Zagreb and Northern Croatia (N=1238). The questionnaire was anonymous and contained the following scales: life satisfaction (How satisfied are you with...? e.g. your health, family relations; 1=Extremely dissatisfied, 5=Extremely satisfied; α=.82; OECD, 2019; Jokić et al., 2019), academic self-efficacy (e.g. I think I am good at studying; 1=Does not apply to me at all, 5= Completely applies to me; α=.75; Jokić et al., 2007), sense of belonging at school (e.g. I make friends easily at school; 1= Strongly disagree, 4= Strongly agree; α=.85; OECD, 2019), perceived quality of student-teacher relations (Think about your experiences during the past 2 months: for how many of your teachers do the following statements apply? e.g. I can trust my teachers; 1= For none or almost none, 4= For all or almost all of them; α=.87; Fischer et al., 2017) and perception of teacher unfairness (Think about your experiences during the past 2 months: how often did the following situations happen to you? e.g. Teachers ridiculed me in front of others; 1=Never or almost never, 4= Every or almost every day; α=.77; OECD, 2017). Students were also asked whether they consider themselves different from other students in their school according to their sexual orientation and, based on the answer, they were classified into two groups: LGBT and heterosexual students. Additional data on students’ gender, parental education level, type of upper secondary program (grammar school or vocational school) and first-year grade point average (GPA) were also collected. Multiple linear regression analysis with overall life satisfaction as an outcome variable was applied in two steps. The first step included main effects of predictors of interest (sexual orientation, academic self-efficacy, sense of belonging at school, perceived quality of student-teacher relations and perception of teacher unfairness) as well as the main effects of chosen control variables (gender, parental education level, type of upper secondary program and GPA). In the second model, interaction terms were added (academic self-efficacy X sexual orientation, sense of belonging at school X sexual orientation, perceived quality of student-teacher relations X sexual orientation and perception of teacher unfairness X sexual orientation). Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings In line with our hypotheses, LGBT students, on average, reported lower levels of overall life satisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts. Different measures of students’ favourable school experience (higher academic self-efficacy, sense of belonging at school, perceived quality of student-teacher relations and lower perception of teacher unfairness) all predicted higher overall life satisfaction. Moderation effects suggest that higher sense of belonging at school and lower perception of teacher unfairness have more noticeable positive effects on overall life satisfaction among LGBT students compared to their heterosexual peers. There was no moderation effect of academic self-efficacy and perceived quality of student-teacher relations on the relationship between sexual orientation and life satisfaction. In relation to control variables, young men and vocational school students expressed higher levels of overall life satisfaction than young women and gymnasium students, respectively. The main effects of GPA and parental educational level were not statistically significant. The model explained about one third of variance in overall life satisfaction. With regard to moderation effects of sense of belonging at school and perception of teacher unfairness on LGBT students’ overall life satisfaction, the results indicate that a positive school climate may alleviate the negative effects of stigma-related stressors on the well-being of LGBT youth. This finding is in line with studies that suggested the importance of positive school climate for potential social support regarding LGBT and other minority students (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2014). Therefore, studies on the relationship between school climate and LGBT students’ experiences in school can serve as an important empirical impetus for planning transformative interventions aimed at supporting LGBT students and making sure that schools are a safe place for them. References Cefai, C., Simões, C., & Caravita, S. (2021). A systemic, whole-school approach to mental health and well-being in schools in the EU. NESET report. Publications Office of the European Union. Deighton, S., Lereya, T., Casey, P., Patalay, P. Humphrey, N. and Wolpert, M. (2019). Prevalence of mental health problems in schools: poverty and other risk factors among 28 000 adolescents. British Journal of Psychiatry, 215(3), 1-3. Hatzenbuehler, M., Birkett, M., Van Wagenen, A., & Meyer, I. (2014). Protective school climates and reduced risk for suicide ideation in sexual minority youths. American Journal of Public Health, 104(2), 279–286. Fischer, N., Decristan, J., Theis, D., Sauerwein, M., & Wolgast, A. (2017). Skalendokumentation (online): Studie zur Entwicklung von Ganztagsschulen - Teilstudie StEG-S, in Datenbank zur Qualität von Schule (DaQS). Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung (DIPF). Jokić, B., Baranović, B., Bezinović, P., Dolenec, D., Domović, V., Marušić, I., Pavin Ivanec, T., Rister, D., & Ristić Dedić, Z. (2007). Key competences ‘learning to learn’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ in Croatian elementary education. European Training Foundation. Jokić B., Ristić Dedić Z., Erceg I., Košutić I., Kuterovac Jagodić G., Marušić I., Matić Bojić J. i Šabić J. (2019). Obrazovanje kao cilj, želja i nada – Završno izvješće znanstvenoistraživačkog projekta Obrazovne aspiracije učenika u prijelaznim razdobljima hrvatskog osnovnoškolskog obrazovanja: priroda, odrednice i promjene (COBRAS). Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu. Kosciw, J., Greytak, E., Giga, N., Villenas, C., & Danischewski, D. (2016). The 2015 national school climate survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools. New York, NY: GLSEN McDermott, E., Kaley, A., Kaner, E., Limmer, M., McGovern, R., McNulty, F., Nelson, R., Geijer-Simpson, E., & Spencer, L.(2023) Reducing LGBTQ+ adolescent mental health inequalities: a realist review of school-based interventions, Journal of Mental Health. Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674–697. OECD. (2017). PISA 2015 Background questionnaires, in PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework: Science, Reading, Mathematic, Financial Literacy and Collaborative Problem Solving, OECD Publishing, Paris OECD. (2019). PISA 2018 results (volume II): Where all students can succeed. OECD Publishing. Pulimeno, M., Piscitelli, P, Colazzo, S., Colao, A., & Miani., A. (2020). School as ideal setting to promote health and wellbeing among young people, Health Promotion Perspectives, 10(4), 316-324. | ||