The Impact of School Climate on Well-Being Experience and School Engagement: A Study With High-School Students

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the factors promoting students’ engagement at school and supporting their well-being experience. According to the Positive Education there is a strong relationship between school environment and student’s well-being. Moreover, the quality of the school climate perceived by the students was found to influence engagement in school activities, as well. In this study, 153 students (M = 67) attending 10th grade were presented with tests and questionnaires to assess individual assets (personality traits, literacy skills), emerging appraisals (school-climate, well-being experience) and emerging actions (school engagement), according to the Student Well-Being Model. Path analysis showed that the best model does include neither individual assets nor direct effect of school climate on engagement, as the effect of school climate on engagement is mediated by well-being experience. The main result is that school climate has been confirmed as an important factor to be considered to improve engagement in school activities, but it is effective only when its influence can modify the well-being experience of the students. Moreover, the lack of significant effects of individual assets in the model suggests that improving school climate means to support well-being experience and, indirectly school engagement, irrespective to learning abilities and personality traits. This work encourages working in/with schools to implement positive education programs that support and sustain a positive school climate and culture for school-community wellbeing.

Promoting Students’ Well-Being and Inclusion in Schools Through Digital Technologies: Perceptions of Students, Teachers, and School Leaders in Italy Expressed Through SELFIE Piloting Activities

“…In addition, the relationship of school leaders’ perceptions with both teachers and students can contribute to design consistent schools’ policies, building trusting relationships with teachers and students, and to offer enriching activities for effectively responding to students’ needs. This is in line with recent empirical studies on well-being ( Lombardi et al, 2019 ) that emphasize the importance of integrating socio-emotional development in schools’ daily practice ( Burns and Gottschalk, 2019 ). Such type of school-level interventions, which have emerged to be more successful in some European countries including Italy ( Govorova et al, 2020 ), encompasses key components of well-being and inclusion through technologies such as relationships , school community , safety , individual learning needs , active learning , and collaboration , explored in the SELFIE self-reflection process ( Kampylis et al, 2016 , 2019 ).…”

“…In particular, the strong relationships that emerged between students and teachers, and between teachers and school leaders highlight the importance of considering the perceptions of all the three main actors in the school community to promote wellbeing and inclusion (Kampylis et al, 2015;OECD, 2019). This is in line with the evidence that school climate is as an important factor to be considered to improve engagement in school activities, but it is effective only when its influence can modify the well-being experience of the students (Lombardi et al, 2019).…”

Psychometric Analysis of a School Social Climate Scale: Input Elements for the Investigation and Promotion of Well-Being

“…The creation of this construct has received attention as a way of improving academic performance (Cocorada et al, 2017;Bravo-Sanzana et al, 2019b;Laurito et al, 2019), reducing problem behaviors (Cornell and Huang, 2016;Gaias et al, 2017;Konold et al, 2017;Moratto et al, 2017;Valdés-Cuervo et al, 2018), developing environments with a lower perception of stress and greater effectiveness and job satisfaction among teachers (Malinen and Savolainen, 2016;Bravo-Sanzana et al, 2019a), and especially recognizing the impact of school climate on wellbeing experience and school engagement (Lombardi et al, 2019). Likewise, school climate is important for promoting student life satisfaction and for preventing the negative consequences associated with being bullied (Lázaro-Visa et al, 2019), as well as the association between SSC and school mental health.…”

Pediatric health-related quality of life and school social capital through network perspectives

“…However, in one exploratory study, authors demonstrated that school connectedness partially mediated the association between emotional distress and school engagement which pertained to educational attainment and school performance [14]. Additionally, other studies also reported the association of other indices of school social capital, such as sense of belonging, support from peers and teachers, and safety, with HRQOL [15][16][17]. Studies have suggested that these indices are malleable and thus can be modifiable factors [18,19].…”