Schools are one of the first and most influential service systems for young refugees. There is a burgeoning interest in developing school-based refugee mental health services, in part to reduce stigma and increase treatment access for this population. Despite the relevance of gaining a better understanding of how refugee students experience schools in resettlement and how this relates to psychosocial adjustment, belonging and connection to school have not been previously investigated among a population of resettled refugees. This study examines school belonging and psychosocial adjustment among a sample of 76 Somali adolescents resettled in the United States. A greater sense of school belonging was associated with lower depression and higher self-efficacy, regardless of the level of past exposure to adversities. Notably, more than one-quarter of the variation in self-efficacy was explained uniquely by a sense of school belonging. School belonging was not significantly associated with posttraumatic stress symptom severity and did not moderate the effect of exposure to adversities on psychological adjustment. These results suggest that investigating ways of improving school experiences would be particularly useful in the effort towards continued development of school-based mental health programs for young refugees. Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications.

School belonging Depression Adolescent self-efficacy Refugee

depression social psychology refugee mental health service Interpersonal Relations human Refugees Adaptation, Psychological child behavior United States school child School Health Services psychology Humans school health service Adolescent male female self concept Community Mental Health Services Article major clinical study adult posttraumatic stress disorder Somalia Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Emigration and Immigration disease severity Students Social Adjustment Child