Perceived class climate and school-aged children's life satisfaction: The role of the learning environment in classrooms.

Katharina Rathmann,Max G Herke,Matthias Richter,Klaus Hurrelmann,Jacobus P Van Wouwe

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0189335

Katharina Rathmann, Max G Herke + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189335

Copy DOI

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of class-level class climate on school-aged children’s life satisfaction. Data was derived from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) using sixth grade school-aged children (n = 4,764, 483 classes). Class climate includes indicators of teachers' care and monitoring, demands, interaction, autonomy, as well as school-aged children's attitudes towards schoolwork at the class- and individual-level. Results showed that individual perceived class climate in terms of teachers' care and monitoring and autonomy was positively related to life satisfaction, whereas school-related demands were related to lower life satisfaction. Besides teachers' care and monitoring at class-level, indicators of class climate were not associated with school-aged children’s life satisfaction, while the individual perceived class climate is more important for life satisfaction.

Highlights

The school is a key context for young people’s development–ranging from the breadth and depth of their intellectual capital and nature of peer influence to their wellbeing [1, 2]–as students spend a long time of their daily life in school [3, 4]
Due to the lack of research on the role of the overall learning environment in classrooms on life satisfaction, the purpose of our study is to investigate whether the overall learning environment in terms of class climate is related to school-aged children’s life satisfaction above and beyond school-aged children’s individual perception of the class climate
Class-level autonomy is significantly correlated with higher levels of interaction between peers in classroom

Summary

Introduction

The school is a key context for young people’s development–ranging from the breadth and depth of their intellectual capital and nature of peer influence to their wellbeing [1, 2]–as students spend a long time of their daily life in school [3, 4]. Subjective wellbeing can include either cognitive judgments, such as life satisfaction, or emotional events, for example, feeling positive emotions [4, 5]. Life satisfaction as an evaluation of an individual’s quality of life, is an important aspect of wellbeing [5, 6] that is closely linked to subjective health [7], social competence and good coping skills [8]. Prior studies revealed that life satisfaction is an important predictor of life outcomes in adulthood, but it is important in predicting the development of young people [9,10,11,12]. The majority of previous research focused on individual socio-demographic and nonschool characteristics in order to explain differences in young people’s life satisfaction [3, 10, 13]. There is not yet a consensus about which dimensions are important for the valid measurement of class climate [15], the multidimensional concept of class climate

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion