Associations of School-Level Racial Diversity, Student Belonging, and Attendance as Mediated by Social Safety Perceptions

• In Event: Child Development Across Varied Contexts

Abstract

The continuing racial-ethnic diversification of the United States’ public schools has resulted in an increasing number of students attending school with others of different racial-ethnic backgrounds. These experiences of school-level diversity have been shown to influence student perceptions of school belonging and safety. Publicly available demographic and statewide student survey data were used to measure racial-ethnic diversity, student belonging, and perceptions of safety. Using structural equation modeling, the association between racial-ethnic diversity, school belonging, and perceptions of safety was explored across all high schools in Illinois. Results demonstrate a positive association between racial-ethnic diversity and student perceptions of safety. A fully mediated relationship was found to exist between racial-ethnic diversity and student belonging via perceptions of safety.

Authors

• Bradley Crimmins, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Ting Dai, University of Illinois at Chicago