Beyond Achievement: Longitudinal Associations Between School Socioeconomic Composition and Students’ Well-Being, Effort, and Academic Self-Concept

This study examines how school socioeconomic composition relates to children’s psychosocial development between ages 9 and 12. Using longitudinal data from 1,933 students in 151 Belgian schools, we estimated three-level growth models treating school socioeconomic composition as a continuous variable. We analysed school well-being, study effort, and academic self-concept from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Higher levels of school socioeconomic composition were associated with lower academic self-concept at the end of Grade 4, but with stronger growth between Grades 5 and 6, resulting in more positive levels by the end of primary education. A similar negative baseline association was observed for study effort; however, no differences in growth emerged, indicating stable disparities over time. School socioeconomic composition was unrelated to school well-being, both at baseline and in subsequent development. Associations did not vary by students’ own socioeconomic background. These results underscore the complexity of compositional effects beyond academic achievement.