TY - JOUR
AU1 - Vaz, Sharmila
AU2 - Falkmer, Marita
AU3 - Parsons, Richard
AU4 - Passmore, Anne Elizabeth
AU5 - Parkin, Timothy
AU6 - Falkmer, Torbjörn
AU7 - 
AB - The relationship between school belongingness and mental health functioning before and after the primary-secondary school transition has not been previously investigated in students with and without disabilities. This study used a prospective longitudinal design to test the bi-directional relationships between these constructs, by surveying 266 students with and without disabilities and their parents, 6-months before and after the transition to secondary school. Cross-lagged multi-group analyses found student perception of belongingness in the final year of primary school to contribute to change in their mental health functioning a year later. The beneficial longitudinal effects of school belongingness on subsequent mental health functioning were evident in all student subgroups; even after accounting for prior mental health scores and the cross-time stability in mental health functioning and school belongingness scores. Findings of the current study substantiate the role of school contextual influences on early adolescent mental health functioning. They highlight the importance for primary and secondary schools to assess students’ school belongingness and mental health functioning and transfer these records as part of the transition process, so that appropriate scaffolds are in place to support those in need. Longer term longitudinal studies are needed to increase the understanding of the temporal sequencing 
TI - School Belongingness and Mental Health Functioning across the Primary-Secondary Transition in a Mainstream Sample: Multi-Group Cross-Lagged Analyses
JF - PLoS ONE
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0099576
DA - 2014-06-26
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/unpaywall/school-belongingness-and-mental-health-functioning-across-the-primary-8BlFqGnlZ6
DP - DeepDyve
ER -