The Relation of Classroom Environment and School Belonging to Academic Self-Efficacy among Urban Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students

In this study, 149 low-income, ethnically heterogeneous, fourth- and fifth-grade students completed self-report surveys in the fall and spring of 1 academic year. We examined classroom climate (satisfaction, cohesion, friction, task difficulty, and competition) and school belonging in relation to language arts and math and science self-efficacy, taking into account initial self-efficacy. Results revealed that greater satisfaction and school belonging, as well as less friction, were associated with higher language arts self-efficacy; school belonging emerged as the most important contextual influence when all classroom and school environmental variables were examined together. Less difficulty was the only contextual variable associated with higher math and science self-efficacy. These results suggest that student perceptions of the classroom and school environment are important to consider in relation to academic outcomes and that they have differential influences depending on the subject. Findings and implications for teachers and schools are discussed.