The link between teacher–student relations and sense of school belonging is not equal for all: The moderating role of immigrant status

Abstract

Teachers' support and positive teacher–student bonds are key factors in promoting a sense of school belonging (SB) among adolescents. Previous research shows that immigrant-origin adolescents (IOA's) report lower SB than their non-immigrant peers do. This study examines if positive teacher–student bonds are equally beneficial for the SB of immigrant-origin and non-immigrant adolescents. Using PISA 2022 data, the moderating role of immigrant status in this relationship was assessed in European countries by multi-level models (NStudents = 151,211, NSchools = 21,629, NCountries = 19). Country-level analyses revealed that IOA's benefited less from positive teacher–student relations in 6 out of 19 countries. In Sweden, Belgium, and Portugal this moderation effect was conditional on the moderating role of school diversity promotion.