School climate and resilience promoting characteristics: exploring latent patterns of student perceptions in California

ABSTRACT

Few studies holistically examine how students experience the multiple dimensions of school climate and resilience promoting characteristics, or how these two constructs may be interrelated. This study utilised a sample of 78,550 7^th, 9^th, and 11^th grade students in California. Roughly half of the participants were female (52%), and roughly half (49%) were Latino. Latent Class Analysis was used to identify a 6-profile model for school climate and a 2-profile model for resilience promoting characteristics. Students experiencing overall positive climate, those experiencing supportive adult relationships, and those who engage meaningfully in their work at schools were more likely to report higher resilience promoting characteristics. These findings highlight the importance of fostering positive and protective school climate. In addition, findings support a social-ecological theory of resilience, indicating that schools are contexts that may play an important role in developing resilience promoting characteristics for secondary students.

KEYWORDS:

• School climate
• resilience promoting characteristics
• school-based intervention
• person-centred analysis
• adolescents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gordon P. Capp

Gordon Capp, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at California State University, Fullerton. His research focuses on schools as key influences in the social ecology of youth and how to maximise school climate as a protective influence for students, families, and staff members. His work also focuses on how school staff members contribute to and experience school climate.

Kathrine S. Sullivan

Kathrine Sullivan is an Assistant Professor at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University. She received her PhD from the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Her work employs quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the impact of trauma and other risk exposures on family process and mental health outcomes, primarily among the families of service members and veterans.

Yangjin Park

Yangjin Park, Ph.D., MSW, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Park’s research interests include violence and trauma, risk and resilience, mental health, and family therapy. His research has benefited from using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. His work aims to reduce violence and trauma among vulnerable populations. Dr. Park earned his Ph.D. in Social Work from New York University, MSW in Social Welfare from Soongsil University, and BS in Business Administration from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea.