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Background A negative school climate is an important factor affecting students’ mental health. However, few studies have focused on the mechanisms underlying the relationship. This study aimed to explore the mediating effect of school belonging on the association between negative school climate and depressive symptoms among Chinese adolescents, using a nationwide longitudinal survey. Methods We conducted a longitudinal study using data from the 2013 (T1) and 2014 (T2) waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). A negative school climate was assessed by school administrators’ reports. School belonging and depressive symptoms were evaluated using adolescents’ self-reports. We used a cross-lagged panel model to explore the mediating effect of school belonging on the association between negative school climate and depressive symptoms, adjusting for a set of covariates. Results In total, 7,049 Chinese adolescents with a mean age of 12.9 years were included in this study. The results of the cross-lagged model showed that negative school climate at T1 was significantly negatively associated with school belonging at T2 ( β = −0.089, 95%CI = −0.111–−0.067, p 0.001), and was positively associated with depressive symptoms at T2 ( β = 0.032, 95%CI = 0.012–0.054, p = 0.002). In addition, school belonging at T1 was significantly negatively associated with depressive symptoms at T2 ( β = −0.025, 95%CI = −0.050–−0.001, p = 0.045). Mediation analysis showed that school belonging played a mediating role in the association between negative school climate and depressive symptoms ( β = 0.002, 95%CI = 0.001–0.005, p = 0.041). Conclusion Among Chinese adolescents, a negative school climate is associated with a greater risk of depressive symptoms. Improving school belonging may be helpful in decreasing the impact of a negative school climate on depressive symptoms in adolescents.
Yin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.