Child Health Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, Western Australia, Australia.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2010 Sep;80(Pt 3):381-402. doi: 10.1348/000709909X484479. Epub 2010 Jan 28.
Connectedness to school is a significant predictor of adolescent health and academic outcomes. While individual predictors of connectedness have been well-described, little is known about school-level factors which may influence connectedness. A school's ecology, or its structural, functional, and built aspects, coupled with interpersonal interactions, may also help to enhance adolescent connectedness.
This study aims to identify school ecological characteristics which predict enhanced connectedness in secondary school.
Data from 5,159 Grade 8 students (12-13 years) from 39 randomly selected schools were tracked until the end of Grade 9 (13-14 years).
Students' self-reported school, teacher, and family connectedness, mental health and peer relationships were measured at two time points. Accounting for school-level clustering, student- and school-level ecological characteristics were modelled on self-reported school connectedness in Grades 8 and 9.
Students' higher school connectedness in Grades 8 and 9 was influenced by greater levels of family connectedness, fewer classroom and peer problems, less difficult secondary school transition, fewer emotional problems, and greater prosocial skills. Seven school-level ecological variables were significantly associated with school connectedness after controlling for student-level predictors. At the school-level, priority for pastoral care and students' aggregated writing skills scores significantly predicted concurrent and future enhanced connectedness.
Interventions to improve students' school connectedness should address individual student characteristics and school functional features such as pastoral care strategies and helping students to achieve greater academic outcomes. Future studies should focus on the cumulative longitudinal influence of school ecological and student-level predictors of school connectedness.
与学校的联系是预测青少年健康和学业成绩的重要指标。虽然已经很好地描述了与学校联系的个体预测因素，但对于可能影响与学校联系的学校层面因素知之甚少。学校的生态系统，或者其结构、功能和建筑方面，加上人际互动，也可能有助于增强青少年的联系。
本研究旨在确定预测中学生增强联系的学校生态特征。
来自 39 所随机选择的学校的 5159 名 8 年级学生（12-13 岁）的数据一直跟踪到 9 年级结束（13-14 岁）。
在两个时间点测量学生自我报告的学校、教师和家庭联系、心理健康和同伴关系。考虑到学校层面的聚类，学生和学校层面的生态特征在 8 年级和 9 年级对自我报告的学校联系进行建模。
学生在 8 年级和 9 年级更高的学校联系受到更高的家庭联系、更少的课堂和同伴问题、更轻松的中学过渡、更少的情绪问题和更大的亲社会技能的影响。在控制了学生层面的预测因素后，有 7 个学校层面的生态变量与学校联系显著相关。在学校层面上，关爱学生的优先事项和学生综合写作技能得分显著预测了同期和未来的增强联系。
为了提高学生的学校联系，干预措施应该针对学生的个体特征和学校的功能特征，如关爱学生的策略和帮助学生取得更好的学业成绩。未来的研究应该关注学校生态系统和学生层面的预测因素对学校联系的累积纵向影响。
