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Teacher and classmate support may keep adolescents satisfied with school and education. Does gender matter?

  • Original article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the associations of teacher and classmate support with school satisfaction in adolescents, and whether gender modifies these associations.

Methods

Data were used from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study collected in 2018 among Slovak 15-year-old adolescents (N = 931; 50.6% boys). School satisfaction was measured by school engagement and attitudes towards education leading to three groups of adolescents: satisfied, inconsistent and indifferent. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine the associations of teacher and classmate support with school satisfaction and its modification by gender.

Results

Adolescents who experienced support from teachers and classmates were less likely to feel indifferent (OR/95% CI: 0.77/0.70–0.85; and 0.76/0.67–0.85, respectively) or inconsistent (OR/95% CI: 0.84/0.77–0.92; and 0.73/0.65–0.81, respectively) than to feel satisfied than adolescents who did not experience such support. Adolescents who experienced support from teachers were less prone to feel indifferent than to feel inconsistent (OR/95% CI: 0.92/0.87–0.97). Gender did not modify the associations of social support with school satisfaction.

Conclusion

Teacher and classmate support keep adolescents satisfied with school and education and might increase their chances for a healthy development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Research and Development Support Agency under Contract No. APVV-18-0070 and No. APVV-17-0568. This work was also supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Reg. No. 1/0427/17.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Psychology and Research Methodology, Faculty of Medicine, P.J. Safarik University in Kosice, Trieda SNP 1, 040 01, Kosice, Slovak Republic

    Simona Horanicova, Daniela Husarova & Andrea Madarasova Geckova

  2. Graduate School Kosice Institute for Society and Health, Faculty of Medicine, P.J. Safarik University in Kosice, Trieda SNP 1, 040 01, Kosice, Slovak Republic

    Simona Horanicova, Daniela Husarova, Andrea Madarasova Geckova & Jitse P. van Dijk

  3. Department of Community and Occupational Medicine, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, A. Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Daniela Husarova, Andrea Madarasova Geckova, Jitse P. van Dijk, Andrea F. de Winter & Sijmen A. Reijneveld

  4. Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University in Olomouc, Univerzitni 22, Olomouc, 771 11, Czech Republic

    Andrea Madarasova Geckova & Jitse P. van Dijk

  5. Institute of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, P.J. Safarik University in Kosice, Srobarova 2, Kosice, 041 54, Slovak Republic

    Daniel Klein

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  1. Simona Horanicova
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  2. Daniela Husarova
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  3. Andrea Madarasova Geckova
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  4. Daniel Klein
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Correspondence to Simona Horanicova.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty at the P. J. Safarik University in Kosice (No: 16/2017). Parents were informed about the study via the school administration and could opt out if they disagreed with their child’s participation. Participation in the study was fully voluntary and anonymous with no explicit incentives provided for participation.

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This article is part of the special issue “Adolescent health in Central and Eastern Europe”.

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Horanicova, S., Husarova, D., Madarasova Geckova, A. et al. Teacher and classmate support may keep adolescents satisfied with school and education. Does gender matter?. Int J Public Health 65, 1423–1429 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01477-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01477-1

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