Grade retention, a pathway to solitude? A cross-national multilevel analysis towards the effects of being retained on sense of belonging

Having a low sense of belonging in secondary education is associated with feelings of social alienation, lower school performance and dropping out early. Based on the person-environment fit theory, we expect a perceived misfit between retainees and their academic environment. This perceived misfit could increase when there are fewer other retainees around. The contextual impact of grade retention upon sense of belonging is assessed by cross-national multilevel analyses on PISA2015 data (25 countries; 8,004 schools; 206,691 students). Results suggest that retainees overall have a significantly lower sense of belonging. Individual effects are smaller in schools with a higher amount of other retainees and the negative effect for retainees is higher in educational systems with a low amount of retainees. This indicates that retainees, in low retaining schools and systems, suffer from a lower sense of belonging because of both grade retention and the environment in which retainees are exceptional.