Middle school student perceptions of school climate: Examining protective functions on subsequent adjustment problems

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Abstract

The present study examined the roles of student perceptions of four aspects of school climate (friction, cohesion, competition among students, and satisfaction with classes) as moderators of the relations between effortful control and subsequent conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Participants were 488 10-to-14-year old students involved in two waves, with one year between each wave, of a study. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that high levels of perceived friction predicted more subsequent conduct problems and depressive symptoms, even after baseline levels of these problems were partialled out. Low levels of effortful control also elevated risk for subsequent conduct problems. However, perceptions of the school as high in cohesion offset the risk associated with low levels of effortful control. Perceived satisfaction with classes also offset this risk, but only for females. Contrary to expectations, student perceptions of school climate did not interact with effortful control to predict subsequent depressive symptoms.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 488 10-to-14-year old students attending all three middle schools in a suburban school district in central Texas and involved in the 1st and 2nd waves of a larger study. At Wave 1, students were in the 6th and 7th grades (M age = 11.69; SD = .76). Wave 2 occurred one year later when students were in the 7th and 8th grades (M age = 12.76; SD = .71). Fifty-four percent of these students were female; 78% were European–American, 16% were Latino, 3.5% were African American and 2.4%

Preliminary analyses

Because our sample was comprised of students reporting varying races/ethnicities and prior research suggests that the protective role of overall school climate varies across these groups (Kuperminc et al., 1997), we conducted preliminary analyses to determine if race/ethnicity effects should be examined. Box's M test was conducted to examine whether the homogeneity of the variance/covariance matrices for all study variables differed across race/ethnicity (see Tabachnik & Fidell, 2001). Results

Discussion

Although early adolescents spend the majority of their waking day in the school, relatively few studies have examined the role of individual perceptions of the middle school climate on changes in emotional and behavioral adjustment. The present study aimed to extend prior cross-sectional research by examining whether student perceptions of friction, cohesion, and competition among classmates, and overall satisfaction with classes moderated the relations between effortful control and change in

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    We thank Sheri Robinson for her contribution to this project.

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