Feelings Of Belonging Affect School Children

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 10 Sep 2009 - 21:00 PDT

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The extent to which a child feels they belong at home, school and in the community may impact on their physical health as well as their psychological well-being. This is the finding of a paper presented at the British Psychological Society's Division of Health Psychology annual conference at Aston University, today, 10th September 2009.

The study was carried out by Fiona Begen and Dr Julie Turner-Cobb from the University of Bath. They asked 159 children aged 11 to 14 to complete questionnaires about their physical health, their feelings and emotions, and to report how connected they felt to their home, school, and community. Initial findings suggest that children who reported feeling a greater sense of belonging at home and in their community reported significantly better physical health. Greater belonging at home was linked to less negative mood, and belonging at school linked to more positive mood.

Fiona Begen said: "We found that those children who had stronger feelings of belonging also reported stronger physical and psychological well being. This was linked to the child's level of self esteem; feeling that you belong leads to an increase in self esteem, and it is this higher level of self esteem which has the positive impact on health and well being. These findings stress the importance of the need to belong in improving child health and preventing illness."

The British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference is taking place at Aston University from 9 -11 September 2009.

Source
British Psychological Society

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