School Bonding and Adaptive Behaviour in Adolescents

The paper examines the role of school experiences in accounting for behavioural and subjective aspects of high- -school student adjustment. The study data were collected on a stratified random sample of students (N = 978) of both genders and attending all 4 grades of high schools in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Age and gender differences in the level and structure of relationships among the selected measures of school experiences, leisure-time variables, and adaptation outcomes were examined. Higher levels of students’ attachment and commitment to fulfilling school obligations were detected among younger students and females, while the exposure to alcohol and substance use was expectedly found to be more common among higher- -grade students. Multigroup structural equation analyses confirmed significant direct relationships of latent measures of school experiences with general satisfaction with life, and indirect relationships of the same school experiences variables with the regularity of substance use among students. Somewhat different magnitudes of structural parameters were observed between the samples defined by gender, whereas age differences in the obtained pattern of structural relationships were not supported by the empirical data.