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

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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.