Sense of School Belonging: The Illusion of a School-Size Effect

Over the past thirty years, the sense of school belonging received increasing attention in the educational field because of the many developmental and educational advantages associated with it. Previous research suggested that small schools are in a better position to create a strong sense of belonging among students. The aim of our study was to test the effect of school size on students’ sense of school belonging and to test whether this effect holds after considering the effect of the classroom after controlling for individual differences. The study was conducted on a sample of 1698 sixth- and seventh-grade students distributed among 20 school institutes in Switzerland. Multilevel analyses have been conducted. While first results showed an effect of the school size on the sense of school belonging, a comparison of the two-level and three-level hierarchical linear models showed that this effect is no longer significant when considering the intermediate level of the classroom in the analysis, indicating that previous research may have overestimated the effect of school size on the sense of school belonging. These evidence raises the question of which levels of the school environment are more relevant to better understanding individual differences in the sense of school belonging.