Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider

© 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to...

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Main Authors: Vaz, Sharmila, Falkmer, Marita, Ciccarelli, Marina, Passmore, Anne, Parsons, Richard, Black, Melissa, Cuomo, Belinda, Tan, Tele, Falkmer, Torbjorn
Format: Journal Article
Published: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23826
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author Vaz, Sharmila
Falkmer, Marita
Ciccarelli, Marina
Passmore, Anne
Parsons, Richard
Black, Melissa
Cuomo, Belinda
Tan, Tele
Falkmer, Torbjorn
author_facet Vaz, Sharmila
Falkmer, Marita
Ciccarelli, Marina
Passmore, Anne
Parsons, Richard
Black, Melissa
Cuomo, Belinda
Tan, Tele
Falkmer, Torbjorn
author_sort Vaz, Sharmila
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the handover documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2015
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-238262017-09-13T13:59:03Z Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider Vaz, Sharmila Falkmer, Marita Ciccarelli, Marina Passmore, Anne Parsons, Richard Black, Melissa Cuomo, Belinda Tan, Tele Falkmer, Torbjorn © 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the handover documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23826 10.1371/journal.pone.0136053 PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE fulltext
spellingShingle Vaz, Sharmila
Falkmer, Marita
Ciccarelli, Marina
Passmore, Anne
Parsons, Richard
Black, Melissa
Cuomo, Belinda
Tan, Tele
Falkmer, Torbjorn
Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title_full Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title_fullStr Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title_full_unstemmed Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title_short Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
title_sort belongingness in early secondary school: key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/23826