Presentazione di una relazione sull’analisi dei dati di un progetto di ricerca sulla valutazione del clima scolastico

(ABSTRACT) School climate is an important area of investigation because of its relationship with learning and school well-being. Recent research has highlighted the relationship between school climate and mental health problems (La Salle et al 2018) and the relationship between school climate and positive mental health (Wang et al, 2018). The present research relates to this line of research to investigate four hypotheses: a) Is there a relationship between the perception of the school climate and negative mental health? b) Is this relationship influenced by grade (grade 6 vs grade 7 vs grade 8)? c) Is this relationship influenced by gender (gender F vs gender M)? d) Can the influence of gender and grade on the relationship between school climate and negative mental health be explained by a "moderate moderation" model (Hayes model 3)? 135 secondary school students participated in the studio. They have completed the online version of the Georgia School Climate Survey (La Salle & Meyers 2014) translated and adapted in italian. The variance explained by the model is equal to 38.11%. Multiple regression revealed a significant and negative effect of the school climate on negative mental health. The interaction GRADE x GENDER is significant, while the interaction CLIMATE x GRADE x GENDER approximates significance (p = 0.07). The conditional test of the CLIMATE (X) x GRADE (W) interaction for the two genders highlights an effect which is not significant for females and an effect which is close to significance for males (p = 0.07). The analysis of the conditional effects of the focal predictor for the moderator values show that for females the effect of school climate on negative mental health is significant and negative for grade 6, 7 and 8; for males this effect is significant and negative only for grade 6 and 7. The relationship between school climate and negative mental health can create problems for both sexes, but boys are more sensitive in the first years of lower secondary (grade 6 and 7) than in the last year (grade 8); while this is not the case for women.