UNLOCKING HAPPINESS: HOW TEACHER AND CLASSMATE SUPPORT, STUDENT PARTICIPATION, AND SCHOOLWORK PRESSURE SHAPE SCHOOL SATISFACTION

Abstract

The school context facilitates the development of a trajectory that is crucial for the
healthy development of adolescents. Young people’s experiences at school have effects on
satisfaction and connectedness with school. Determining factors that increase school satisfaction
contribute to adolescent health and academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose
of this research is to predict school satisfaction based on teacher support, classmate
support, participation in school, and schoolwork pressure. Predictors of satisfaction from
school are teacher and classmate support, and participation in school activities. The
sample consists of 5144 adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 from North Macedonia. By gender,
48.4% are boys and 51.6% are girls. According to the language of instruction, 66.6% of the
adolescents involved in the study learn in the Macedonian language, and 33.4% learn in
the Albanian language. Binary logistic regression was used to predict school satisfaction.
Teacher and classmate support and schoolwork pressure explain 31% of the variance in
school satisfaction among adolescents. The findings of this study highlight the importance
of support from teachers, classmates, school participation, and schoolwork pressure as
factors that significantly increase school satisfaction, suggesting the need for educators
and policymakers to delve deeper into specific mechanisms through which these factors
promote higher academic achievement and general well-being.