Social connectedness, life satisfaction and school engagement: moderating role of ethnic minority status on resilience processes of Roma youth

We examined the influence of connectedness on school engagement and life satisfaction among Roma (n=121) and Bulgarian (n=143) mainstream adolescents (mean age 15.89, SD=1.18). A set of measures on family, peer, school and neighbourhood connectedness were administered alongside life satisfaction and school engagement scales. Multigroup path analysis indicated that while the relationship between connectedness, life satisfaction and school engagement was largely the same across groups, the strength of such relationship differed among groups. A closer inspection of the model indicated that when it comes to school engagement, there was a salient difference in the role of different forms of connectedness between Roma and mainstream adolescents. For Roma adolescents, familial connectedness was especially salient for school engagement. The practical and theoretical implications of our findings for strengths and adaptive processes among Roma adolescents in Bulgaria are discussed.