School Climate and Indicators of Emotional Distress · stress in middle and high school students. Measures: Independent Variable School of Public Health ... school climate and levels

School Climate and Indicators of Emotional Distress

Presented By:

Sabena Thomas, MA, Shay M. Daily, MPH, MCHES, Alfgeir L. Kristjansson,

PhD., Megan Smith, PhD., & Michael J. Mann, PhD.

School of Public Health

Introduction


School Climate (SC): quality and consistency

of school life that may impact students’ social

cognitive and behavioral development . This

includes the social and physical aspects of the

school environment.1

Student Wellbeing : “a sustainable state of positive

mood and attitude, resilience, and satisfaction with

self, relationships and experiences at school.” 2

Introduction


However, an unanswered question is “what

specific aspects of school climate is related to

mental health outcomes?”

A positive SC is positively associated with

academic achievement, 1 motivation to learn3,

psychological well-being4 and inversely related

to absenteeism5, and problem behaviors 6 in

school.

Objective


Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the

relationship between a 10 sub-dimensional SC

measure and self reported levels of anxiety,

depression, conduct disorder and perceived

stress in middle and high school students.

Measures: Independent Variable


School Climate School Climate Measure 108

SC1: Student-Teacher Relationships (8-items, α = .93)

SC2: Order and Safety (6-items, α = .89)

SC3: Student Engagement (6-items, α = .88)

SC4: Physical Environment (4-items, α =.95)

SC5: Academic Support (4-items, α =.84 )

SC6: Parental Involvement (3-items, α = .90)

SC7: School Connectedness (3-items, α = .84)

SC8: Perceived Exclusion/Privilege (3-items, α = .90)

SC9: Social Environment (2-items α = .88)

SC10: Academic Satisfaction (2-items α = .74)

Measures


School Climate Measure 108

SC1: Student-Teacher Relationships: Teachers understand my problems.

SC2: Order and Safety: The rules of the school are fair.

SC3: Student Engagement: Females and males are treated as equals at school.

SC4: Physical Environment: My school is neat and clean.

SC5: Academic Support: I feel that I can do well in this school.

SC6: Parental Involvement: My parents/caregivers are involved in school activities.

SC7: School Connectedness: My schoolwork is exciting.

SC8: Perceived Exclusion/Privilege: At my school, the same person always gets to help the teacher.

SC9: Social Environment: I am happy with the kinds of students who go to my school.

SC10: Academic Satisfaction: I am happy about the amount of homework I have.

Measures: Dependent Variable


Depression (10 – items) 9

• 4-Point Likert Style Scale (Never to Often)

• Ex: How often did you feel any of the following mental or physical

discomforts in the past week? I felt sad or blue

Anxiety(3 – items) 9

• 4-Point Likert Style Scale (Never to Often)

• Ex: How often did you feel any of the following mental or physical

discomforts in the past week? Sudden fear for no apparent reason

Student Well-being

Measures


Perceived stress(10 – items) 11

• 4-Point Likert Style Scale (Never to Very Often)

• Ex: In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on

top of things?

Conduct Disorder (5 – items) 10

• 4-Point Likert Style Scale (Never to Almost all

the time/All the time)

• Ex: How often during the past 12 months have you done any of

the following? Got into fights

Sample, Procedures and Analyses


Middle Schools Total: 15

• 6,472 surveyed

• Response rate: 84.2%

• Boys: 50.7% Girls: 49.3%

• Caucasian: 76.5% Black/AA: 13% Other: 10.5%

High Schools Total: 9 • 7, 379 surveyed

• Response rate: 74%

• Boys: 49.5% Girls: 50.5%

• White/Caucasian: 76.5% Black/AA: 13% Other: 10.5%

Sample, Procedures and Analyses


• Students completed a survey developed for PROJECT

AWARE during Fall 2016.

• Survey items included questions regarding socio-demographic

factors, school climate and levels of general emotional and

psychological well-being.

• Design: School Based Population Survey

Statistical Analysis

• Multiple Linear Regression to analyze the associations

between variables.

Findings


Middle School Students

** ** p < .01, * p < .05

Depressed mood (β) Anxiety (β)

Conduct Disorder

(β)

Perceived

Stress(β)

SC1: Teacher Relationships -.12** -.06* -.13** -.11**

SC2: Order & Discipline .10* .08** -.05* .07**

SC3: Student Engagement -.09** -.07** -.04 -.11**

SC4: Physical Environment .07** .09** .05** .04*

SC5: Academic Support -.09** -.07** .11** -.12**

SC6: Parental Involvement -.16** -.12** -.10** -.17**

SC7: School Connectedness

-.06** .02 .03

.07**

SC8: Exclusion/Privilege -.11** -.11** -.05* -.16**

SC9: Social Environment -.13** -.12** -.01 -.11**

SC10: Academic Satisfaction

-.01 .00 -.04*

-.01

R2 .16 .12 .14 .22

Findings – Middle school students


Middle schools - variance

explained

• Depressed mood: 16%,

• Anxiety: 12%,

• Conduct Disorder: 14%

• Perceived Stress: 22%

Middle schools – standardized

β (p <.05)

• Parental involvement: .10 to

.17 - all outcomes

• Teacher relationships: .06 to

.13– all outcomes

• Perceived exclusion/privilege

: .05 to .16 - all outcomes

Findings


High School Students

** p < .01, * p < .05

Depressed mood (β) Anxiety (β)

Conduct Disorder

(β)

Perceived

Stress(β)

SC1: Teacher Relationships -.05** -.04* -.08** -.05**

SC2: Order & Discipline .01 .02 -.07** .03

SC3: Student Engagement -.06** -.05* -.03 -.09**

SC4: Physical Environment .04* .04* .02 .04*

SC5: Academic Support .02 -.08** -.05** -.05**

SC6: Parental Involvement -.13** -.10** -.08** -.12**

SC7: School Connectedness

-.01 -.03 .01

-.00

SC8: Exclusion/Privilege -.12** -.10** -.03* -.15**

SC9: Social Environment -.12** -.12** -.01 -.11**

SC10: Academic Satisfaction

-.02 -.03 -.04**

-.06**

R2 .17 .15 .08 .20

Findings – High school students


High schools - variance

explained

• Depressed mood: 17%,

• Anxiety: 15%,

• Conduct Disorder: 8%

• Perceived Stress: 20%

High schools – standardized β (p

<.05)

• Parental involvement: .08 to .13 -

all outcomes

• Teacher relationships: .04 to .08 -

all outcomes

• Perceived exclusion/privilege : .03

to .15 - all outcomes

• Social environment: .01 to .12- all

outcomes

Discussion


• The SC domains of parental involvement, teacher relationships, perceived exclusion/privilege had the highest associations.

• These analysis suggest a positive SC is likely to decrease certain mental health outcomes namely: depression, anxiety, behavioral problems and perceived stress.

• Overall, we conclude that a positive SC may act as a protective factor for mental health.

Implications


Findings suggest that SC is an important indicator for mental health outcomes. This study underscores the importance of developing and maintaining a positive SC as this could be beneficial in the development and maintenance of positive psychological outcomes particularly in schools where mental health is a problem. The study further supports the idea of developing academic and population level support for mental health through a positive SC.

Acknowledgements


Project AWARE 2016-2021 is funded by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Administration (SAMSA) and the West Virginia Department of Education.

The authors would like to extend our gratitude to the fund for its generous support.

References


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School Climate and Indicators of Emotional Distress · stress in middle and high school students. Measures: Independent Variable School of Public Health ... school climate and levels