Neighborhoods and Educational Opportunities: An Examination of Factors Affecting Sense of Belonging in High School (Poster 2)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 11:45am
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

This study examines how neighborhood and school environments affect opportunities to develop a greater sense of belonging among a national sample of ninth grade students in the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS: 2009) matched to their residential tract in the 2009-2013 American Community Survey. Multilevel mixed effects regression analysis is employed to model the association between structural aspects of neighborhoods and schools, student-reported sense of school belonging, and the role of access to enrichment opportunities, supportive parents, teachers and peers in bolstering sense of belonging. Implications for education policy are discussed, particularly the importance of fostering opportunities for socialization through school-based programs and extracurriculars which may boost school attachment and improve educational attainment, particularly among youth from historically disenfranchised groups.

Author

• Naomi Sara Duran, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign