School Belonging and the Psychosocial Functioning of Military-Connected Students

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Introduction
Children’s sense of school belonging has been linked to academic engagement, internalizing symptoms, and peer victimization (Juvonen, 2006). Military-connected (MC) students experience frequent school transitions, which can disrupt school belonging. Because children tend to form relationships with peers with similar experiences (Strohmeier, 2012), we reasoned that MC students would have a greater sense of school belonging when they befriend peers who are also MC.
In this study, we tested the association between school belonging and psychosocial outcomes in a sample of MC students. We also examined whether school belonging was linked to ratings of the importance of having MC friends at school and to having a MC best friend at school. We hypothesized that links between school belonging and psychosocial outcomes would be replicated for MC students. Further, we expected students who reported that having MC friends at school was important and who had a MC best friend at school would report the higher levels of school belonging.

Method
Participants were 203 MC students in 3rd or 5th grade. We measured school belonging (Psychological Sense of School Membership; Goodenow, 1993), peer victimization (items from the School Experiences Questionnaire; Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004), internalizing symptoms (internalizing subscale of Behavior and Feelings Survey; Weisz et al., 2019), and academic engagement (items from School Engagement Scale; Fredericks et al., 2005). Students rated the importance of having MC friends at school on a 4-point Likert scale, with a 3 or higher scored as “high importance” and a 2 or lower as “low importance.” Students were asked whether they had a best friend at their current school, and if so, whether that friend was MC.

Results
School belonging was related to academic engagement, peer victimization, and internalizing symptoms in expected directions (r = 0.32, p < 0.01; r = -0.24, p < 0.01; r = -0.27, p < 0.01). On average, students rated the importance of having MC friends at school between “A Little” and “Somewhat” important (M = 2.41, SD = 1.17). Reports for whether their best friend was MC were “Yes” (33%), “No” (25%), and “I don’t know” (42%). Roughly half of the students rated having MC friends at school as being of “high importance” and half as “low importance.” Results of a 2 (Importance) X 3 (Best Friend MC status) ANOVA indicated no significant differences in school belonging (F(2, 193) = 2.78, p = 0.06) based on MC friend importance or having a MC best friend.

Discussion
Our results replicate findings linking school belonging to psychosocial outcomes in a MC student sample. Notably, there were no significant differences in students’ sense of school belonging. Links between school belonging and MC friends could be complicated by the their own mobility or that of their MC friends. Indeed, low levels of school belonging could be caused by not having MC friends or by having MC friends but anticipating those friends’ mobility. In the latter case, students who have MC friends may intentionally keep loose ties to their schools in anticipation of changing schools.

Group Authors

Steggerda, J.C., Spencer, R., Slep A., Herrera, C., & Cavell, T.A.

Authors

• Jake Steggerda, University of Arkansas
  Presenting Author

• Renee A Spencer, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Michelle Smith Slep, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carla Herrera, Herrera Consulting Group, LLC
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tim A. Cavell, University of Arkansas
  Non-Presenting Author