The role of social belonging and exclusion at school and the teacher–student relationship for the development of learned helplessness in adolescents

Background Based on learned helplessness theory and conservation of resources theory, the present study explores the role of schools’ social environments (i.e., school belonging, school exclusion, and teacher–student relationships) as potential buffers and amplifiers in students’ development of learned helplessness during adolescence. Aims We examine whether school belonging, school exclusion, and teacher–student relationship moderate the longitudinal association of learned helplessness differently for students from low‐track schools and high‐track schools. Sample The study uses a sample of N = 1,088 (Mage = 13.70, SD = 0.53; 54% girls) adolescent students who participated in a two‐wave longitudinal study. Methods We conducted latent moderated structural equation modelling to examine whether school belonging, school exclusion, and teacher–student relationship moderate the longitudinal association of learned helplessness differently for students from low‐track schools and high‐track schools. Results The moderation analyses revealed that students from both school tracks are differently affected by school belonging and school exclusion in their development of learned helplessness. Teacher–student relationship did not moderate the association. Conclusion Our findings underline the important role of the social environment in students’ development of learned helplessness. Particularly, the differential effects found for the different educational tracks highlight the necessary awareness of educators to interindividual differences of their students