Quality of School Life in Primary Schools: Relations with Academic Achievement, Motivation and Students' Behavior

The aim of this study was to examine the relations of the quality of school life (QSL) with students' academic achievement, motivation and inappropriate behaviors in school. The sample included 4999 fifth- to eighth-grade primary school students. The participants completed an adopted version of the QSL questionnaire, self-report measures of their goal orientations towards learning and scales assessing the frequency of truancy and discipline problems. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with academic achievement, goal orientations, truancy and discipline as criterion variables and students' gender, age and QSL variables as predictors. Significant predictors of students' academic success were stronger sense of school competence and less negative feelings about the school. Students with higher learning goal-orientation were more satisfied with their school and perceived it as a place where learning is fun. Performance-oriented students valued more a sense of achievement and had more negative feelings about the school. Students' perceptions of the opportunity for future they get from schooling were significant predictors of both goal orientations. Students who are more truant perceive schooling as less relevant for their future and experience more negative feelings in school. Students who misbehave less frequently perceive learning as adventure, rate their relationships with teachers more favorably, but also consider themselves less socially integrated in schools. A stronger sense of school competence was a significant predictor of less frequent inappropriate behaviors. The implications of these findings for creating a stimulating school environment are discussed.