Exploring the association between school belonging and emotional health among adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the association between school belonging and wellbeing, distress, and emotional health status yielded from a bidimensional model among adolescents. Participants comprised of 413– 49.7% female and 50.3% male– adolescents, ranging in age between 11 and 18 years (M = 13.96, SD = 1.64). Findings from the preliminary analyses showed a large positive association between school belonging and emotional wellbeing variables, whereas a moderate negative association between school belonging and emotional distress variables. Additionally, primary analyses demonstrated that adolescents with high levels of the school belonging have low levels of the emotional distress, yet high levels of the emotional wellbeing. Significant main effects for emotional wellbeing, emotional distress, and bidimensional emotional health were observed across all school belonging scales. A larger effect size for the bidimensional emotional health main effect was found for school belonging, comparing with unidimensional emotional wellbeing and distress. Results of the study provide important implications for research and practice in term of mental health services.