Characterization of School Climate Perception in Mexican Middle School Students

Abstract

School climate is a construct that shapes the interactions between school members and influences its development in different aspects. For the students, school climate perceptions have been linked to their academic, psychological, and behavioral development. Despite its relevance, there are only few studies of Mexican students exploring issues related to school climate. A transversal and descriptive study was developed. The 2211 participants were students from four public middle schools. They completed an adapted Spanish version of the MDS3 School Climate Survey, which was composed by 56 items that loaded onto three scales: engagement and school perception (α = .93), rules and equity (α = .90) and risk behavior (α = .92). The parents’ consent was obtained through a waiver of active consent process. Frequencies, averages, standard deviation and Z-scores were calculated. Mann-Whitney U test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to explore differences in the school climate perceptions based on select student, familial, and school characteristics. Survey results were categorized into a three-level scale using Z-scores (low, medium, high). More than 10% of the participants scored in the low level, corresponding to a negative perception, while for the high level, the student connectedness subscale obtained one of the highest percentages (21.2%), followed by the Risk behavior scale (20.3%) and the school rules subscale (20.3%). There were statistically significant differences found in the school climate perception for gender, age, mother school level and school shifts (i.e., AM vs. PM) variables. We can conclude that a high percentage of the participants have a negative perception of school climate and consider that there are risk behaviors among the students in their schools. There were several significant differences in the school climate perceptions by sociodemographic, familial and school variables.