Format of schooling on students’ relational and school experiences

This study examined whether students with different formats of schooling varied on their relational and school experiences, and investigated the cross-lagged relationships between these outcomes among both types of students. Two-hundred-and-eighty-nine students (160 boarders and 129 day students) from two primary schools in Mainland China participated in the study and completed questionnaires for twice with 6-week interval in between during the fall semester in 2018. GLM Repeated Measure Analysis results showed no significant main effect of both formats of schooling and time on students’ social adjustment and emotional well-being. Boarders reported higher relatedness satisfaction to peers while it of day students remained stable six weeks later. In addition, boarders reported higher satisfaction of need for relatedness to parents than day students did in general. Moreover, the results of Cross-lagged Panel Analysis showed bidirectional cross-lagged relationships between relatedness satisfaction to peers and social-emotional outcomes on both types of students. Emotional well-being could significantly predict relatedness satisfaction to parents, while no cross-lagged relationship was reported between relatedness satisfaction to parents and social adjustment. The path strengths of examined relationships varied in terms of formats of schooling. Despite of some variations on relational outcomes, the results suggested parity on social-emotional experiences between boarders and day students over the period. Findings also showed the insight of the directionality of relationships between the relational and school experiences outcomes of two types of students. Implications were provided in both school and family levels. Limitation of this study and future directions were discussed. All rights reserved.