ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the determinants of academic underachievement in children and adolescentsView all 5 articles
Personal and environment factors and participation as mediators between high school type and school quality of life and well-being
Provisionally accepted
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel
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Introduction: Alternative schools support students with academic or behavioral challenges through flexible, personalized approaches. These educational environments are closely linked to personal and environmental factors that influence adolescents' participation in daily activities, which are crucial to their school quality of life (QoL) and well-being. Methods: This study examined the effect of personal and environmental factors and participation as mediators between high school type, school QoL and well-being, among 103 students attending alternative schools and 156 peers in traditional schools across Israel. Results: Alternative school students showed significantly higher motivation and their higher sense of school relatedness approached significance. School type had a positive direct effect on motivation and school QoL. Motivation also mediated indirect effects on out-of-school participation and overall well-being. School QoL was shaped by school type, school relatedness, and perceived social support. Discussion: These findings highlight the effectiveness of supportive, student-centered school environments in enhancing students' well-being, suggesting that incorporating alternative education principles into mainstream settings may improve school QoL and well-being.
Keywords: Youth, Nontraditional schools, life satisfaction, school quality of life, engagement
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lavie-Pitaro, Weintraub and Golos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yael Lavie-Pitaro, yael.laviepitar@mail.huji.ac.il
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