Role Model Influence in Predicting Belongingness among African American Students Table 2. Full HLM Model Predicting School Belonging, Using In-Home Interview and School Administrator Survey Note: * = p <.05, ** = p <.01. Freeman, T. M., Jackson, C. H., Strand, K. H., Matthews, K. F., McNally, J. L., & Brown-Wright, L. AIMS (a) to see if there are differences between schools on African American students’ sense of belonging. (b) to explore what factors would influence African American students’ sense of school belonging at the school level. We hypothesized that percentage of African American teachers in the school, school size, and busing practices would account for some of the differences between schools. Method Participants Procedures The sample for the present study comes from the ADD Health dataset. ADD health is a longitudinal study funded by various agencies, to examine physical and psychological well-being during adolescence. The present study included a sub-sample of 20,745 students from 132 schools nationwide. Student data come from surveys that were administered in students’ homes, whereas school-level data comes from a survey that was completed by an administrator at each school. Both genders are equally represented in the sample. In terms of ethnic diversity the sample contains 15% African American, 14% Hispanic/Spanish, 5% Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.5% Native American, 6% other non-white. In terms of school level characteristics, 22.7% were considered Small (1-400 students), 45.3% Medium ( students), and 32.0% Large ( students); and 16.0% of (N = 23) reported using busing practices. Measures Scale construction of the school belongingness measure was supported by Principal Component Analysis with varimax rotation and produced a scale with good reliability (a =.78). Scale items with descriptive statistics and factor loadings are presented in Table 1. Dummy variables for gender (female = 1), ethnicity (Caucasian = 0) for each ethnic grouping, and busing (1 = uses busing) were created. Average class size, percentage of AA Teachers, GPA, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test raw scores were transformed into standardized units prior to entry into the models. Background Research that has investigated the psychological sense of belonging at school has found African American (AA) status to be a negative predictor of school belonging at both the individual and school levels (Anderman, 2002; McNeely, et al., 2002). Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD) have shown that perceiving a sense of belonging in one’s academic environment has both physical and psychological benefits (Resnick et al., 1997; Anderman, 2002). In an interview study, Kester (1994) found that AA students felt a sense of belonging due in part to the school “house” structure, which promoted teacher-student relationships, as well as to peer relationships. In a longitudinal study, Zirkel (2002) found that AA students who have race and gender matched role models performed better academically, and report higher levels of achievement goals and career and educational aspirations than those who do not have such models available. Evans (1992) found a significant role model effect for AA students, which was related to academic achievement. VariableMeanSDFL I feel like I am a part of this school I am happy to be at this school I feel close to people at this school I feel safe in my school The teachers at this school treat students fairly Table 1. School Belonging Scale Descriptives and Factor Loadings (FL) Results of the full HLM model are shown in Table 2. School-level characteristics were modeled on the intercept and on the slope for AA students. After controlling for students’ gender, GPA, Peabody scores, SES, and ethnic group status, the percentage of AA teachers in a school was related significantly to AA students’ perceived sense of school belonging (gamma =.12, p <.01). Specifically, AA students who attend schools with a greater percentage of AA teachers reported greater perceived belonging. Average class size and use of busing practices were not significant in predicting school belonging among AA students after percentage of AA teachers was entered into the model. Discussion It is possible that many African American students may identify with persons with similar racial ethnic backgrounds and thus view them as role models. This perception may positively impact their psychological sense of belonging in school. These findings are consistent with research that has examined the impact of role models and mentors on the academic success, social comfort levels and retention of African American students at every academic level (Smith, 1997; Taylor & Hiatt-Michael, 1999; Freirson, 1994). Findings from the current study have enormous implications for school administrators and teacher educators. There is currently a shortage of AA teachers within the educational system at every level. School administrators must begin to realize the positive impact AA role models can cultivate in the educational experiences of AA. Similarly, teacher education programs must strive to increase the numbers of AA they train to become educators within their teacher education programs. References Anderman, E. M. (2002). School effects on psychological outcomes during adolescence. Journal of Educational Psychology Bryk, A.S., & Raudenbush, S.W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Evans, M. (1992). An estimate of race and gender role-model effects in teaching high school. Journal of Economic Education, Summer, Fierson, H.T. (1994). Black summer research students’ perceptions related to research mentors’ race and gender. Journal of College Student Development 35 (6) Harmon, D. (2002). They won’t teach me. Roeper Review, 24(2), Kester, V. M. (1994). Factors that affect African- american students’ bonding to middle school. Elementary School Journal, 95(1), McNeely, C. A., Nonnemaker, J. M. & Blum, R. W. (2002). Promoting school connectedness: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health. Journal of School Health, 72(4), Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Beuhring, T., Sieving, R. E., Shew, M., et al. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 823 – 832. Smith, V.G. (1997). Caring: Motivation for African American male youth to succeed. Journal of African American Men, 3(2), Taylor, G. & Hiatt-Michael, D. (1999). Mentoring of female African American adolescents. ED Zirkel, S. (2002). Is there a place for me? Role models and academic identity among white students and students of color. Teachers College Record, 104(2), This research uses data from the Add Health project, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry (PI) and Peter Bearman, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Persons interested in obtaining data files from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC ( UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology Submit requests to: Results Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) was used as the primary analytic tool. The Intraclass correlation (ICC) was calculated to examine between-school variance in belonging. Finally, we developed a full HLM model, examining the relations of school-level variables (e.g., percentage of African American teachers) to the slope for African American adolescents. The intraclass correlation for the full model was.0872, suggesting that approximately 8.7% of the variance in school belonging lies between schools,   (130) = , p <.01. VariableGamma Intercept.03 Busing-.06 Class Size-.02 %African American Teachers in School -.03 Gender-.12** SES.00 Hispanic.11** African American.03 Busing-.03 Class size.00 % African American Teachers in School.12** Native American-.13** Asian/Pacific Islander.08 Other Race-.05 PVT Raw Score-.07** GPA.21**