‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ World Anti-Bullying Forum 2025

School Belonging: an important but neglected construct?

11 Jun 2025, 15:15

15m

Stavanger Forum

Oral Paper Presentation Protective and risk factors for bullying and cyberbullying within individuals and contexts Room: Jæren

Speakers

CATHERINE CULBERT (University of Lancaster)Prof. Peter Smith (Goldsmiths, University of London)Ms Susanne Robinson (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Description

School belonging encompasses emotional and behavioural components such as feeling personally accepted, respected and supported by others in the school social environment. Measures of school belonging relate strongly to important outcome measures, for example school bullying and victimization rates, academic achievement, and school attendance. Regular assessment is crucial as schools face unprecedented levels of mental distress and increasing inequality and disadvantage among underrepresented groups. This review provides a holistic understanding of school belonging within the UK educational context and internationally. It explores how belonging is defined, measured, and its impact on pupil outcomes, culminating in recommendations and policy implications. A scoping review was conducted on Web of Science and similar databases to identify relevant articles exploring pupils’ sense of school belonging. Peer relationships, teacher relationships, and school climate all significantly affect pupils’ school belongingness. Having a strong sense of school belonging positively contributes to pupil mental health and wellbeing. Unrepresented and marginalised pupils experience a sense of school belonging differently according to the group they belong to, with each group having its own unique approaches to nurture school belongingness. This literature review has revealed the importance of fostering an environment where all pupils feel a sense of belonging. It recommends that teachers are encouraged to nurture school belonging. School belonging acts synergistically with school climate to impact school bullying. School belonging needs to be measured routinely. Research is needed looking at school practices that affect it in either positive or negative ways, the need is particularly pressing in primary schools.

Keywords

school belonging, bullying, psychosocial outcomes