UC Santa Barbara

School belonging has been shown to have several critical associations for children, inclusive of psychological distress, academic success, long-term career success, and physical health. As such, it has become increasingly important to fully understand the construct of school belonging and how it impacts students. The literature on school belonging has consistently focused on secondary school students and the associations with mental health have almost exclusively fixated on psychological distress, rather than complete mental health (i.e., both psychological strengths and psychological distress). This dissertation aims to better understand school belonging in both primary and secondary school students through addressing these gaps in the literature. In Study 1, the constellation of school belonging experiences in primary school students were assessed through Latent Profile Analysis (LPA). Results found support for a three-class solution: High, Moderate, and Low School Belonging classes, with the majority of students falling in the Moderate and Low classes. Proximal outcomes of complete mental health were examined and results were in expected directions. For example, students in the High School Belonging class self-reported high psychological strengths and low psychological distress. In Study 2, school belonging was examined as a protective and promotive factor within the relation between complete mental health and academic achievement in secondary school students through a moderated path analysis. Results indicated that school belonging acted as both a protective and promotive factor within the context of psychological strengths and academic achievement. Taken together, the findings from both studies further support the continued need for investigating and understanding school belonging and how it impacts all students in various contexts.