School and Student Characteristics related to Primary and Secondary School Students' Socialemotional Functioning

Anne de Bruijn ^* Melanie Ehren Martijn Meeter Anne Fleur Kortekaas-Rijlaarsdam

• LEARN! Research Institute, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Introduction: A healthy social-emotional functioning is vital for students' general development and wellbeing. The school environment is a major determinant of social-emotional functioning, yet little is known about school-level and student-level characteristics related to healthy social-emotional functioning. In this study, we examined school-level characteristics (school size, school disadvantage score, urbanization level, and school denomination) and student-level characteristics (grade, secondary school track, participation in a COVID-19-related catch-up programme, and measurement momentduring or after COVID-19) as predictors of students' motivation for school, academic self-concept, social acceptance, and school wellbeing.In school year 2020-2021, just after the first Covid-19 outbreak, 3764 parents of primary school students from 242 Dutch primary schools and 2545 secondary school students from 62 secondary schools filled out online questionnaires, before and after a Covid-19 related catch-up programme was implemented at their school. Reliable and validated questionnaires were used to assess students' motivation (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory), academic self-concept (Harter Self Perception Profile for Children; Self-Description Questionnaire-II), school wellbeing (Dutch School Questionnaire) and social acceptance (PRIMA Social Acceptance Questionnaire). School characteristics were derived from online databases. Student participation in a catch-up programme and measurement moment (before or after the programme) were taken into account. Data was analysed via multilevel General Linear Mixed Models, separately for primary and secondary education.Of the school-level factors, only school disadvantage score was a significant predictor, specifically for primary school students' motivation. Of the student-level characteristics, grade and catch-up participation were significant predictors of lower motivation, academic self-concept and school-wellbeing in primary school. In secondary school, students in higher grades had significantly lower motivation and school wellbeing; participants in catch-up programme had a significantly lower academic self-concept; and perceived social-acceptance and school wellbeing were significantly lower just after COVID-19.School-level characteristics only played a minor role in explaining differences in students' social-emotional functioning. In both primary and secondary education, students in higher grades and participating in catch-up programmes scored lower on their social-emotional functioning. Schools should be aware of students in higher grades being at risk for more problems in their socialemotional functioning.