Promoting Connectedness through Whole-School Approaches: A Qualitative Study.

Purpose – School connectedness, or a sense of belonging to the school environment, is an established protective factor for child and adolescent health, education, and social well‐being. While a comprehensive, whole‐school approach that addresses the school organisational environment is increasingly endorsed as an effective approach to promote connectedness, how this approach creates a sense of belonging in the school environment requires systematic in‐depth exploration. This paper aims to address these issuesDesign/methodology/approach – This study examines the influence on school connectedness of a whole‐school approach to promote health in school, using a qualitative case study method. Three school communities in Southeast Queensland, Australia, are investigated as case studies in order to formulate a theoretical model of how health promotion approaches can build school connectedness.Findings – This study finds that a health promotion approach builds school connectedness by encouraging a “whole‐school” ...