The link between school climate and mental health among an ethnically diverse sample of middle school youth.

Autor: Franco K; Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0587 USA., Baumler E; Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0587 USA., Torres ED; Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0587 USA., Lu Y; Department of Health and Exercise Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019 USA., Wood L; Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0587 USA., Temple JR; Center for Violence Prevention, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0587 USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) [Curr Psychol] 2022 Mar 30, pp. 1-11. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Mar 30.
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03016-y
Abstrakt: School climate consistently relates to adolescent adjustment across academic, socioemotional, and behavioral domains. Although past research highlights the impact of school climate on youths' experience of internalizing symptoms and violent behavior, examination of potential links with specific externalizing processes is limited. The current study examined associations between middle school students' perceived school climate and internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms. A positive school climate was hypothesized to be inversely related to all mental health measures. Seventh grade students ( N  = 2768; 50% female) were recruited from 24 Texas middle schools. Participants completed baseline self-reports of perceived school climate across three dimensions (student-student relationships, student-teacher relationships, and awareness/need of reporting violence) as well as self-reports of internalizing (i.e., depression and anxiety) and externalizing (i.e., impulsivity and hostility) symptoms. Multilevel regression analyses were implemented to test all hypotheses, controlling for participant sex and race/ethnicity. Results indicated student-student relationships were negatively related to depressive symptoms, student-teacher relationships were positively related to anxiety and negatively linked to hostility, and help-seeking/reporting awareness was inversely related to all four indices of mental health. The current research underscores the impact of school climate on adolescents' psychological adjustment and emphasizes the need to address awareness and responsivity in reporting concerning school behavior.
Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors have no conflict of interest to report.
(© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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