Place evaluation and self-esteem at school: the mediated effect of place identification

Like neighbourhoods, companies or housing, schools are considered a location for which the student must develop feelings of attachment and identification. The purpose of this research is to test a path model in which the evaluation of the image of the scholastic institution plays a role in the process of sociospatial identification in the school place; this identification is itself involved in the development and maintenance of positive academic self-esteem. Two hundred and seventy-eight students registered at secondary schools participated in the research by responding to a questionnaire composed of a series of scales. The results show a good fit between the model and the data, since the students' self-esteem proved to be partially explained by the quality of their identification with their institution. The status of the level of sociospatial identification as a mediator variable was also confirmed.