On the Relation between School Alienation and Social School Climate

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have referred to school alienation as a severe problem that affects the socio-emotional and cognitive development of students. In this study, the authors examined how the relationships with teachers and classmates are associated with students’ state of alienation from learning, from teachers, and from classmates, applying a cross-sectional research design. Participants included 543 Grade 7 students from the Swiss canton of Bern who took part in the binational research project “School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (SASAL, 2015-2019)”. Results of correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that the student-teacher and student-student relationships were associated with alienation from school.

Keywords

• School alienation; social school climate; student-teacher relationship; student-student relationship; secondary education