Dr. Ferro and colleagues recently a paper titled “Perceived School Belonging Among Youth with Chronic Physical Illness” in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. Data come from a sample of youth aged 10-16 with chronic illness participating in the longitudinal Multimorbidity in Children and Youth Across the Life Course (MY LIFE) Study. A total of 105 youth attended school in the past year and provided self-reports.

School belonging is defined as the extent to which students perceive they are accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school environment. This definition was applied in the development of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale, used in this study.

Results showed that modified PSSM (m-PSSM) scores remailed relatively consistent over time. Predictors of lower perceived school belonging were being in secondary school, having psychopathology, reporting lower quality of life in the domains of social support and school environment, experiencing peer victimization, and living in a community with higher residential instability and lower material deprivation.

Given the stability of youth perceptions and that predictors are relatively non-modifiable, early and upstream efforts to promote school belonging are critical for youth with physical illness.