Abstract
A sense of belonging has long been associated with a wide range of positive outcomes for both our physical and mental health. Indeed, a sense of belonging is considered to be a need rather than a want. From a life course perspective, it could be argued that the formative years of adolescence and emerging adulthood are a particularly critical period for the following years of adulthood. With this knowledge, this thesis aims to explore the relationships which exist between a sense of belonging, and three key outcomes during adolescence and emerging adulthood: mental health, academic efficacy, and self-esteem. With the use of both high school and university student samples and a range of designs (cross-sectional, longitudinal, interventional), we were able to design three empirical studies assessing; (1) the impact of school belonging on the mental health status of high school students through a measure of anxiety and depression levels (Study 1A and 1B), (2) the relationship between university belonging and academic efficacy (Study 2A and 2B, and (3) the effectiveness of adventure education programs in enhancing self-esteem by fostering group belonging (Study 3A and 3B). These studies collectively suggested that a sense of belonging holds significant benefits for the aforementioned outcomes, and that fostering the right environment which is conducive to increasing a sense of belonging may be particularly beneficial for not only the outcomes of interest, but for other outcomes pertinent for good health.