The Importance of Belonging

This chapter investigates the effects of students’ sense of belonging at school at age 15/16 on their life satisfaction and mental and emotional wellbeing as young adults. The study utilises data from the 2003 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), which, follows more than 3,000 students over a ten-year period. Using a propensity score matching methodology to elucidate causal (rather than correlative) relationships, we find that a weak sense of belonging at school at age 15/16 manifests in statistically significant lower levels of self-reported mental and emotional wellbeing one decade onwards. Our findings suggest that policies that increase young people’s sense of belonging as students entail benefits that extend well beyond their time at school.