Influence of school factors on students’ sense of school belonging

Abstract

Sense of school belonging is related to school/classroom social membership. Students’ sense of school belonging depends on teachers, classmates and parents, and arises from a positive interpersonal relationship based on care and support, which contributes to students’ sense of community. The scientific problem analysed in the article is defined by the following question: which factors of school educational environment are significant for the sense of school belonging and social membership to arise? The databases of tests, student and school questionnaires of the OECD PISA worldwide study were used for the survey. 4618 students aged 15 from 216 general and vocational schools of Lithuania participated in the survey. Analysis of data showed that some factors of school educational environment have a positive, while other ones - negative relation to the sense of school belonging.