Educational Psychology for Student Well-Being and Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

A lack of school belonging can impact students’ engagement in their own classes and may well impede their acquisition of key literacies (language, mathematics, and science). Students with differences to the majority/favored group(s) within a school may be particularly vulnerable to such a sense of institutional mismatch; furthermore, a lower SES, being more rural, and public schools may also impact belongingness (1). Efforts to enhance school belonging/well-being may range widely in their effectiveness and sustainability. This Special Issue is intended to bring together a series of thoughtful articles around ways to enhance the belongingness of students in an efficacious and enduring manner.

School belongingness/well-being is related to school engagement (2) and achievement (1,3), has been assessed in several ways (4,5), and can be a concern for students perceived (by themselves or others) as members of an “out-group”. This Special Issue aims to surface approaches toward the enhancement of school belonging that can be both effective and sustainable. The scope of this anticipated compilation of articles encompasses a variety of related psychosocial constructs, including school bonding (6); academic hardiness (7); academic buoyancy (8); happiness (9); thriving/positive psychosocial development (10); flourishing (11); life satisfaction/eudaemonia (12); and bullying (13,14). Furthermore, additional foci could include multiple aspects of students’ vulnerabilities; for example, academically at-risk groups (15); immigrant/migrant status (16); grade retention (14); refugees (17); family separation (18); and self-handicapping/learned helplessness (19). Of course, we anticipate analysis of the comparative values of diverse belongingness promotion strategies, such as school climate modification via the prioritization of mental health alongside academics (20); building authoritative contexts (6); extracurricular participation/teacher support/parent engagement/cultural change (15); the promotion of cooperative over competitive climates (1); multiculturalism over assimilationism (5); or mastery approaches to learning (21). We anticipate that this collection of research works around school belonging will help school leaders, particularly those in resource-poor contexts, implement strategies toward enhanced school belonging.

References

1. OECD. 2020. Sense of belonging at school. In PISA 2018 results (Volume III: What school life means for students’ lives), OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/d69dc209-en.
2. Fredricks, J.A., Hofkens, T., Wang, M.-T., Mortenson, E., & Scott, P. 2018. Supporting girls’ and boys’ engagement in math and science learning: A mixed methods study. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(2), 271-298. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21419.
3. Cockerill, T. 2019. Pupils attending a shared placement between a school and alternative provision: Is a sense of school belonging the key to success? Educational & Child Psychology, 36(2), 23-28.
4. Arslan, G., Asajarani, F., Bakhtiari, S., & Hajkhodadadi, F. 2022. School belonging in adolescents: Psychometirc properties of the School Belongingness Scale in Iranian students. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 32, 97-106. https://doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2020.7.
5. Celeste, L., Baysu, G., Phalet, K., Meeussen, L., & Kende, J. 2019. Can school diversity policies reduce belonging and achievement gaps between minority and majority youth? Multiculturalism, colorblindness, and assimilationism assessed. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(11), 1603-1618. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219838577.
6. Keppens, G., & Spruyt, B. 2019. The school as a socialization context: Understanding the influence of school bonding and an authoritative school climate on class skipping. Youth and Society, 51(8), 1145-1166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X17722305.
7. Abdollahi, A., & Noltemeyer, A. 2018. Academic hardiness: Mediator between sense of belonging to school and academic achievement? The Journal of Educational Research, 111(3), 345-351. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2016.1261075.
8. Bostwick, K.C.P., Martin, A.J., Collie, R.J., Burns, E.C., Hare, N., Cox, S., Flesken, A., & McCarthy, I. 2022. Academic buoyancy in high school: A cross-lagged multilevel modeling approach exploring reciprocal effects with perceived school support, motivation, and engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000753.
9. Kirkcaldy, B., Furnham, A., & Siefen, G. 2004. The relationship between health efficacy, educational attainment, and well-being among 30 nations. European Psychologist, 9(2), 107-119. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.9.2.107.
10. Burns, E.C., Collie, R.J., Van Bergen, P., & Martin, A.J. 2022. Intrapersonal and interpersonal psychosocial adjustment resources and achievement: A multilevel latent profile analysis of students and schools. Journal of Educational Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000726.
11. Datu, J.A.D., Labarda, C.E., & Salanga, M.G.C. 2020. Flourishing is associated with achievement goal orientations and academic delay of gratification in a collectivist context. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21, 1171-1182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00122-w.
12. Heffner, A.L., & Antaramian, S.P. 2016. The role of life satisfaction in predicting student engagement and achievement. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17, 1681-1701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9665-1.
13. Li, L., Chen, X., & Li, H. 2020. Bullying victimization, school belonging, academic engagement and achievement in adolescents in rural China: A serial mediation model. Children and Youth Services Review, 113, 104946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104946.
14. Lian, Q., Yu, C., Tu, Z., Deng, M., Wang, T., Su, Q, & Zuo, X. 2021. Grade repetition and bullying victimization in adolescents: A global cross-sectional study of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 2018.PLOS Medicine 18(11), e1003846. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003846.
15. Hughes, J.N., Im, M.H., &Allee, P.J. 2015. Effect of school belonging trajectories in grades 6-8 on achievement: Gender and ethnic differences. Journal of School Psychology, 53, 493-507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2015.08.001.
16. Ho, N.K., Schweitzer, R., & Khawaja, N. 2017. Academic achievement among recently arrived Chinese adolescent migrants: The role of social support, school belonging, and acculturativestress.Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools,27(1), 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2016.4.
17. Sobitan, T.2022. Understanding the experiences of school belonging amongst secondary school students with refugee backgrounds (UK). Educational Psychology in Practice, 38(3), 259-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2022.2084042.
18. Wang, S., &Mao, Y. 2018. The effect of boarding on campuson left-behind children’s sense ofschool belonging and academic achievement: Chinese evidence from propensity score matchinganalysis.Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 38(3), 378-393. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2018.1470965.
19. Määttä, S., Nurmi, J.-E., & Stattin, H.2007. Achievement orientations, school adjustment, and well-being: A longitudinal study.Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17(4), 789-812.
20. Allen, K.-A., Kern, M.L., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Waters, L. 2017. School values: A comparison ofacademic motivation, mental health promotion, and school belongingwith student achievement.The Educational andDevelopmental Psychologist, 34(1), 31-47. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2017.5.
21. Zhou, J., Huebner, E.S., & Tian, L. 2020. Longitudinal associations and mechanisms betweenachievement goals andsubjective well-being in schoolin Chinese adolescents.School Mental Health, 12, 353-365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-019-09356-8.

Prof. Dr. Larry J. Grabau
Guest Editor

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• student belonging
• student well-being
• school bonding