Reciprocal longitudinal effects between sense of school belonging and academic achievement: quasi-experimental estimates using United States primary school data.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

This study investigates the bidirectional relationship between earlier sense of school belonging and later academic achievement in schoolchildren at grades 4 and 5 in US schools, using ECLS-K:2011 longitudinal data.

Methods

Two alternative estimation methods were used, both addressing biases due to endogenous covariates.

Results and discussion

The findings (sample size > 8,000 observations) provide strong evidence that (1) the dominant effect is from sense of school belonging to achievement, where lower bound effect sizes are substantially larger than those reported in correlational studies; and (2) in the opposite direction biases are small, and bias-corrected effect estimates are generally in line with the multiple regression estimates. The findings als

SUBMITTER: Sakellariou C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11869772 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature