School quality of life: Cross-national comparison of students’ perspectives

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cross-national comparisons of students’ school quality of life (QoL) can support our understanding of factors that may affect students’ health and well-being at school. OBJECTIVE: To compare Canadian and Israeli students’ perception of their school QoL. METHODS: The Quality of Life at School Questionnaire (QoLS) was administered to 1231 students in 4th to 6th grades from Canada (n = 629) and Israel (n = 602), measuring: Physical Environment, Positive Attitudes, Student-Teacher Relationship, and Psychosocial. RESULTS: The Canadian students scored significantly higher than the Israeli students on all domains. The two-way ANOVA did not show a statistically significant interaction between country and gender nor age. However, within each country, girls and 4th grade students reported higher overall QoLS. CONCLUSIONS: This study lends support for the universal aspects of perceived QoL at school. This information may serve clinicians and educators in setting goals and developing programs to enhance students’ school QOL.