Abstract:

Background and objectives:
School is considered as one of the most important developmental context for adolescents influencing their academic and socio-emotional functioning. Numerous studies have established that sense of belonging to school is associated to students´ school achievement (i.e. grades, motivation), well-being and problem behaviour. Fewer studies used longitudinal data and explored relationship between school belonging and both academic and psychological outcomes in students in Slovakia, where the school belonging is the 5. lowest from OECD countries. To address this gap, we used data from our 2-wawe longitudinal study to examine whether school belonging predicted concurrent and prospective academic (grades, perceived school utility, school interest) and psychological (internalizing and externalizing problems) adjustment among high school students in Slovakia.

Methods:
The research sample (Time 1) consisted of 135 high school students (Mage=15,14, SD=0,48). Of these, 94 respondents participated in the research one year later (Time 2) (Mage=16,09, SD=0,47). Respondents completed research questionnaires at the beginning of the first school year and repeatedly at the beginning of the second year of the study. To measure school and teacher belonging and academic adjustment self-report questionnaires were utilized. Problem behaviour was examined via teacher reports.

Results:
Results indicated that school belonging predicted lower level of internalizing problems concurrently and prospectively one year later. Belonging to teacher predicted perceived school utility and school interest cross-sectionally but not prospectively one year later.

Conclusion:
Findings highlighted the importance of school and teacher belonging for fostering academic and psychological adjustment of high school students.

Keywords:

School belonging, academic adjustment, psychological adjustment, adolescence.