It feels good to learn where I belong: School belonging, academic emotions, and academic achievement in adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between school belonging, academic emotions, and academic achievement in Macau adolescents. A survey of 406 junior high school students in Macau was used to collect information on the extent to which these students felt accepted and respected in their schools (school belonging), the emotions they experienced in learning (academic emotions), and their grade point averages. Path analysis indicated that academic emotions mediated the relation between school belonging and academic achievement. Students with a greater sense of school belonging experienced more positive emotions (both activating and deactivating) and less negative deactivating emotions, which in turn contributed to their academic success. A sense of being rejected in school can affect academic achievement negatively through facilitating negative deactivating emotions and inhibiting positive deactivating emotions.