School Bonding among Children in Elementary Schools; A Test of Control Theory

This paper measures the level of school bonding and investigates factors contributing to school bonding in children in elementary schools. The sample consists of 412 students (149 male, 263 female) of children in 5th grade in city of Kraj. The data was gathered through demographical and school bonding questionnaires. Findings confirm models suggested by Hirchi and Cernkovich which considers school bonding dependent on attachment to teachers, attachment to school, commitment to school and involvement in school. The result of Kruskal–Wallis test shows that although the level of bonding is not significantly different between schools but the difference between classes are statistically significant. This may be due to the internal relation between school bonding and attachment to teachers, the specific condition of different classes and so on. The variable “GPA” is significantly related to school bonding but the relation between gender and school bonding is not statistically significant.