title: Sense of community, unfairness, and psychosomatic symptoms: a multilevel analysis of Italian schools.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examines the role of school sense of community and school unfairness in predicting psychosomatic symptoms among Italian early adolescents. The study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the relations between individual and school characteristics, and students' psychosomatic symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were analyzed using a two-level model based on 22,552 students (49.8% boys; M age = 15.70, SD = .69) nested within 1,111 schools. A questionnaire devised by the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) international group was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sense of community and procedural unfairness in the school at the individual level showed a significant association with students' psychosomatic symptoms. School characteristics predicted between-school variation in psychosomatic symptoms, in that procedural unfairness at the school level increased the risk for psychosomatic symptoms and a sense of community in the school protected students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study suggests that the quality-of-school context may have a key role in predicting students' psychosomatic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: University of Padova, Padova, Italy. alessio.vieno@unipd.it
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vieno
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenzi
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santinello
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scacchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D012935:Social Justice / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data