2022/08/08 by DeLeon L. Gray, Brooke Harris-Thomas, Joanna N. Ali +4
Social Sciences · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Parental Involvement in Education #Youth Development and Social Support
paper · doi:10.1177/00420859221117682
crossref issued 2022/08/08 · crossref published 2022/08/08 · crossref published-online 2022/08/08 · openalex publication_date 2022/08/08 · crossref created 2022/08/08 · crossref published-print 2024/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/07/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Existing measures of belonging in schools do not explicitly elevate the contextual and cultural insights of the educators and students they were designed to assess. Our study addresses this shortcoming through the co-creation of an Opportunities to Belong survey measure for urban middle schoolers. The tool was developed in partnership with practicing educators and normed around Black and Latinx students ( N = 225). Results of a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis revealed strong evidence for single factor structure. A within-persons multilevel model revealed that shifts in opportunities to belong predicted fluctuations in student engagement across different academic courses. Implications are discussed.