Belonging and socioemotional wellbeing among students in transition from primary to secondary school

This study highlights the significance of school context for early adolescents navigating the primary-secondary transition. For students enrolled in combined schools offering Kindergarten to Year 12 within the same school, the transition from Years 6 to 7 involves minimal change in terms of school culture and ethos, uniform, school location, administration, transit route and student cohort. In contrast, students navigating a cross-contextual transition must adjust to many changes including a largely different mix of students coming from a number of feeder schools in the local district. The current study is unique in that it examines how sense of belonging and socioemotional wellbeing among students who remain within the same K–12 school, is influenced by a new learning environment, different teachers and an influx of new students in Year 7. Specifically, the current study explores a within-context transition from the students’ perspective. The study addresses two central research questions: 1. What is the role of school belonging in influencing socioemotional wellbeing, and what changes occur in: a) school belonging, and b) dimensions of socioemotional wellbeing over time? 2. How do these differ according to: a) school, and b) gender? The participants were 231 students, aged 11–13, followed through Years 6 to 7 from seven non-government independent schools in Sydney’s Inner West and Eastern suburbs in New South Wales, Australia. The pre- and post-transition survey used existing measures of school belonging (Roeser, Midgley, & Urdan, 1996), self-esteem (Harter, 1982), friendship quality (Parker & Asher, 1993) and loneliness (Asher & Wheeler, 1985). Of the 231 students, 20% (N = 48) participated in individual interviews conducted in Term 4 of Year 7, to share their experiences of the transition from primary to secondary school. The results indicated a significant association between belonging and each of the socioemotional dimensions, suggesting that students’ senses of belonging were pertinent to their self-esteem, friendship quality and loneliness. There was no significant change over time in school belonging or self-esteem, however friendship quality increased and loneliness declined from Years 6 to 7. Significant differences between schools in terms of students’ senses of belonging were evident, while girls moreso than boys experienced a shift towards closer connections with same-sex peers across the transition. These findings suggest that within-context transitions have less impact on students’ adjustment than the much-studied cross-contextual primary-secondary school transition, which has been found to trigger declines in academic achievement, motivation and self-esteem (Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Liu & Lu, 2011; McGee, et al., 2003; Perry, Dawe, Howard, & Dengate, 2000; Perry & Fulcher, 2003; Perry & Howard, 2002). This study provides a compelling story from the students’ perspectives and important implications for schools from all sectors, including the need for professional development for educators, aimed at; 1) building students’ senses of belonging at school, and 2) offering boys more support to build friendships and positive teacher-student relations in Year 7.