A Multilevel Framework of School Belonging

Abstract

Much of the literature that investigates school belonging has focused attention on individual factors. However, our review (Chap. 4) and meta-analysis (Chap. 5) suggest that school belonging is a complex multi-faceted construct that can be influenced by multiple levels and systems within a school. Synthesizing the themes apparent in our review of the literature, we present a multi-level framework to examine school belonging, that is, the bio-psycho-socio-ecological model (BPSEM) of school belonging. We present the BPSEM framework and unpack the different domains. The framework provides a foundation for application, which we turn to in proceeding chapters.