Students, schools, and the social bond: An analysis of school bonding from elementary to high school

Sociological research has focused on a student's bond to school as a protective factor against delinquency. While this is one important component in the study of delinquency, it is also important to understand what impacts the school bond. What is about one's attachment to, commitment to, and involvement in school that limits a child's participation in delinquency? Specifically, research must attempt to understand what creates a strong student-school bond among elementary and secondary school students and how does it change during the transition from elementary to middle and into high school.;Utilizing data from 5503 fifth grade students, 5136 eighth grade students and 3937 eleventh grade students across 105 schools, this study modeled both individual- and school-level variables to assess the predictive power of each on the school bond at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The predictive model was further analyzed at each grade to assess significant differences in school bonding between the genders and across race/ethnicity.;This study found that at the elementary school level, the school bond as conceptualized by Hirshi (1969), does not function in the hypothesized manner. This suggests that future research should focus on the elementary school into early middle school populations to fully understand the development of the school bond. At the late-middle and high school levels, however, the school bond begins to function as theorized. A student's strong bond to school at the middle and high school level serve a preventative function against delinquent behaviors, drug use, and delinquent peer associations; regardless of the amount of delinquency in the school environment. This work also addresses issues of gender and race in the American school system and how each can impact a students bond to school.