Schools. a place to belong? A synthesis of the psychological, ecological, environmental, and interpersonal factors related to school connectedness

It has been shown that school belonging, also referred to as school connectedness, has a significant impact on adolescent wellbeing across a range of measures. These include life satisfaction (O'Connor, Frydenberg, & Sanson, 2009), wellbeing (Haslam, Jetten, Postmes, & Haslam, 2009), clinical depression (Anderman, 2002), cognitive performance (Haslam, Jetten, Postemes, & Haslam, 2009), academic outcomes (Battistich, Solomon, Kim, Watson, & Schaps, 1995; Roeser, Midgley, and Urdan, 1996) and physical health (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2009). Moreover, these findings have been demonstrated across a range of settings e.g., the workplace (Cockshaw & Shochet, 2010), schools (Shochet, Dadds, Ham, & Montague, 2006) and communities (Osterman, 2000), and over a cross section of groups e.g., young adults (Iyer, Jetten, Tsivrikos, Haslam, & Postmes, 2009), adolescent refugees (Kia- Keating & Ellis, 2007), old age home residents (Haslam, Haslam, Jetten, Bevins, Ravenscroft & Tonks, 2010) and stroke patients (Boden-Albala, 2005). Thus belonging is an important aspect of psychological functioning that enhances wellbeing. While there has been research into belonging within school settings the research has been unsystematic across a variety of constructs. This presentation outlines the arguments justifying the need for a meta analysis of the psychological, ecological, environmental, and interpersonal factors related to an individual’s perceived sense of belonging within school settings. A preliminary review of the findings from a broad range of studies investigating interventions related to the concept of belonging in a school setting will be presented.