Effects of trust on student identification and academic performance

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study:

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between internal (faculty) and external (parental/student) trust and student identification with school and academic performance. There was an absence of prior empirical evidence in the area of the relationship between trust, student identification with school, and academic performance. However existing empirical evidence and extant theoretical knowledge regarding trust led to the hypothesis that trust could be a vital resource in fostering student identification with school and in improving academic performance. This research study investigated these relationships using survey data collected from 74 schools in 26 contiguous counties across northeastern Oklahoma. Ordinary Least Squares Multiple Regression was used to perform a path analysis of this data.

Findings and Conclusions:

The results of this study indicated that both internal and external trust are positively correlated with student identification with school. However, external trust proved to be a more salient predictor of student identification with school. The findings of this study suggest that SES is not related to student identification with school but is highly correlated with academic performance. Both internal and external trust were found to have a significant and positive effect upon academic performance when controlling for the effect of SES. Furthermore, students are more identified with school at the elementary school level and this identification tends to wane as students move on to higher levels of school.