title: Brief report: Association between psychological sense of school membership and mental health among early adolescents.
abstract: Mental health problems among adolescents are prevalent and are associated with important difficulties for a normal development during this period and later in life. Understanding better the risk factors associated with mental health problems may help to design and implement more effective preventive interventions. Several personal and family risk factors have been identified in their relationship to mental health; however, much less is known about the influence of school-related factors. One of these school factors is school belonging or the psychological sense of school membership. This is a well-known protective factor to develop good academic commitment, but it has been scarcely studied in its relationship to mental health. We explored this association in a sample of early adolescents and found that students who reported having a high level of school membership had lower mental health problems, even after controlling for several personal and family factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK; Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Universidad de los Andes, Avenida Monseñor Álvaro del Portillo, 12455, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: jorge.gaete@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gaete
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860, Macul, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: crojash@uc.cl.
authors.forename: Cristian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rojas-Barahona
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing (Campus San Felipe), Universidad de Valparaíso, Camino La Troya With El Convento, San Felipe, Chile. Electronic address: eolivaresv@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Esterbina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Olivares
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK. Electronic address: Ricardo.Araya@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Araya
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D008603:Mental Health; D012574:Schools; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adolescents; Mental health; School membership