Cross-sectional study links school belonging with engagement among rural Chinese boarding students

A cross-sectional study of 657 students at one rural boarding high school in Yunnan Province found that school belonging, academic buoyancy and learning engagement were positively associated, with academic buoyancy accounting for a modest but statistically significant portion of the association between belonging and engagement. The finding applies to students at the selected school and does not establish a causal sequence or show that the pattern is universal across rural boarding schools.

The researchers defined school belonging as students’ perception of being accepted, respected and supported within the school environment, while academic buoyancy refers to the capacity to cope with routine academic setbacks and challenges. Learning engagement was assessed through students’ attention, commitment and motivation toward learning. The analysis was grounded in Self-Determination Theory, which examines the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Students were recruited through cluster sampling of intact classes at a school purposively selected for full-week boarding, a predominantly rural catchment and a student population whose families largely could not provide day-to-day academic support. Of 670 questionnaires completed in June 2026, 13 were excluded because of incomplete responses, patterned answers or failed lie-detection items. The final sample included 266 male and 391 female students, including 179 in Grade 1, 217 in Grade 2 and 261 in Grade 3.

Students completed validated Chinese-language self-report scales for school belonging, academic buoyancy and learning engagement. The school-belonging measure had 18 items and an internal consistency coefficient of 0.890; the four-item buoyancy measure had a coefficient of 0.727; and the 17-item learning-engagement measure had a coefficient of 0.957. The investigators used descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, t-tests and one-way analysis of variance to examine levels and demographic differences.

All three constructs were reported at moderate levels. School belonging had a mean of 3.020, academic buoyancy a mean of 3.252 and learning engagement a mean of 4.274. School belonging correlated with learning engagement at r = 0.436, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.372 to 0.496. Academic buoyancy correlated with engagement at r = 0.380, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.313 to 0.444, while belonging and buoyancy correlated at r = 0.286, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.214 to 0.355.

PROCESS Model 4 assessed whether academic buoyancy statistically mediated the belonging–engagement association while controlling for gender and grade. The indirect effect was 0.211, with a bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence interval of 0.140 to 0.291 based on 5,000 resamples, and represented 17.87% of the total statistical effect. A significant direct association between belonging and engagement also remained, with a coefficient of 0.967 and a bootstrap 95% confidence interval of 0.800 to 1.135. The researchers therefore characterized academic buoyancy as a partial statistical mediator.

Demographic differences were selective. Male students reported higher academic buoyancy than female students, with a small-to-moderate effect of Cohen’s d = 0.359 and a 95% confidence interval of 0.202 to 0.516. There were no statistically significant gender differences in school belonging or learning engagement. Academic buoyancy also did not differ significantly by grade. School belonging was higher in Grade 1 than in Grades 2 and 3, while engagement was lower in Grade 1 than in both senior grades. Because all grades were measured at one time, these were comparisons among cohorts rather than measured changes within students.

The authors interpreted the grade pattern cautiously. They proposed that first-year students’ belonging may reflect an initial sense of relatedness and shared identity, while increased academic demands in later years may strain competence and weaken relational security. They also suggested that the college entrance examination may contribute to externally regulated engagement in senior grades, meaning that high engagement should not automatically be equated with highly autonomous motivation. These interpretations were theoretical readings of the cohort differences, not causal findings established by the survey.

The study has several limitations. Its cross-sectional design and single-timepoint self-reports prevent causal inference and leave potential common-method bias. The sample was limited to intact classes at one school in Yunnan Province, so replication is needed across geographic and institutional settings. The three basic psychological needs used in the theoretical framework were not measured directly. The authors also noted that related variables, including academic self-efficacy and academic emotions, were not included in the model, and that future multi-method, multi-wave and intervention studies would be needed to distinguish overlapping mechanisms and test the proposed pathway more rigorously.

Subject of Research: School belonging, academic buoyancy and learning engagement among rural Chinese boarding high school students

Article Title: School belonging and learning engagement among rural Chinese boarding high school students: the mediating role of academic buoyancy

Article References: Zeng, Z., Huang, J., & Nie, Y. (2026). School belonging and learning engagement among rural Chinese boarding high school students: the mediating role of academic buoyancy. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, Article 1958525. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1958525

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1958525

Keywords: school belonging, academic buoyancy, learning engagement, rural boarding students, China, cross-sectional study, mediation analysis, Self-Determination Theory, high school students, student engagement, School, belonging