In Queensland, Australia, there has been a major reform shifting Year 7 from Primary to Secondary Schools and implementing the Junior Secondary initiative for Years 7-9 in government schools. Six Guiding Principles, including establishing a Distinct Identity, provide the framework. This study examined 317 students transitioning from Year 6 to 7,…

Background: We examined whether subgroups of adolescents experienced disparate changes in school connectedness--a robust predictor of multiple health outcomes--from before the COVID-19 pandemic to the first full school year following pandemic onset. Methods: We used 2 waves of prospective survey data from 7178 students attending 41 Canadian…

This paper reports on a participatory action research project that investigated how a resource called the Index for Inclusion was used by a secondary school community to improve school connectedness at a whole school level. The researchers worked with the Australian case study school over one year to engage in review, development, and change. This…

Despite the importance of school connectedness and bullying victimization in students' school burnout, to our knowledge, very few studies have analyzed their reciprocal associations, and most of them have used cross-sectional designs. So, the nature and directions of these relations have not been established yet. The general aim of this study was…

School belonging, sometimes referred to as school belonging or school connectedness, involves dimensions like positive affect towards school, relationships with teachers, and feeling socially valued. Previous research points to immediate benefits for students' mental health and wellbeing; however, evidence on the potential long-term benefits of…

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of digital game addiction in the relationship between school belonging and psychological resilience of adolescents in middle school. Considering school belonging together with digital game addiction may help to better understand the risk and protective factors of psychological…

One of the most discussed topics in the education space is the achievement gap. More specifically, research has looked at the achievement gap between African American students and White students, which despite gains, has continued to widen (US Department of Education, 2019). Even though there is widely-cited research on the achievement gap, it…

Universal and selective preventive interventions targeting youth behavioral problems have shown crossover effects on suicide risk, the second leading cause of death among youth. However, the mechanisms that explain this long-term unanticipated benefit are understudied and unclear. The current study examines the crossover effects of PROSPER, a…

Grade retention and inequalities that derive from grade retention can influence student school trajectories and careers. Grade retention can discourage students from education, and increase school failure and dropout. This study explored the relationship between grade retention and student intentions to enrol in higher education. We also studied…

Democratic school climate, critical reflection, and student participation at school have been linked to the development of civic and political attitudes. The study aims to identify the contribution of these characteristics to the development of civic and political attitudes and their impact on students' participation (civic, political, activist,…

This study investigated the relationship between math anxiety and academic motivation and the mediating role of school belongingness. For data collection, 447 students (boys = 247) were selected using convenience sampling and administered the School Belonging, Educational Motivation, and Mathematics Anxiety Scale. The results showed that school…

Students' sense of school belonging is associated with healthier psychological functioning and improved academic outcomes. Currently, most research on school belonging has been conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, resulting in school belonging practices and interventions largely biased towards Western school…

In extending the understanding of how school bullying impacts student learning, this research explored the relationships among school bullying, students' sense of belonging at school and academic performance in science, maths and reading. Data analysis was conducted using Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong (China) data of the 2015 Programme…

Stress and coping frameworks posit that active coping may help mitigate stress experiences of individuals, such as the stress resulting from structural racism or anti-immigrant sentiments (i.e., sociocultural stress) Latinx adolescents experience in the United States. Active coping has been linked to better school functioning in mixed-ethnic…

Background: Schools are increasingly recognized as key facilitators of child and youth well-being. Much attention has been directed to the school social environment and the areas of school climate or school connectedness/identification. Drawing on the social identity approach and related work, it has been argued that school social identification…