research paper on boarding school

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

The impact of boarding school on student development in primary and secondary schools: a meta-analysis.

• School of Education, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China

As a long-established model of schooling, the boarding system is commonly practiced in countries around the world. Numerous scholars have conducted a great deal of research on the relationship between the boarding school and student development, but the results of the research are quite divergent. In order to clarify the real effects of boarding school on students’ development, this study used meta-analysis to quantify 49 (91 effect sizes) experimental or quasi-experimental studies on related topics at home and abroad. The results find that: (1) Overall, boarding school has no significant predictive effect on student development, with a combined effect size of 0.002 ( p  > 0.05); (2) Specifically, boarding school has a significant positive predictive effect on students’ cognitive development ( g  = 0.248, p  < 0.001), a significant negative predictive effect on students’ affective and attitudinal development ( g  = −0.159, p  < 0.05), and no significant predictive effect on students’ behavioral development ( g  = −0.115, p  > 0.05) and physical development ( g  = −0.038, p  > 0.05); (3) The relationship between the two is moderated by the school stage and the type of boarding school, but not by the instruments; (4) Compared with primary school students, senior high school students and urban boarding students, the negative predictive effect of boarding system on junior middle school students and rural boarding students is more significant. In addition, there are some limitations in the study, such as the limited number of moderator variables included, the results of the study are easily affected by the quality of the included literature, and the dimensionality of the core variable “student development” is not comprehensive enough. In the future, further validation should be conducted through in-depth longitudinal or experimental studies.

Introduction

Boarding school, which began in British public schools, is a common form of schooling that provides students with accommodation and food, and integrates personal lives of students with their academic lives ( Dong, 2012 ). In boarding schools, a relatively closed school management model is generally adopted, and dormitories, canteens and other related living facilities are equipped to meet the basic living needs of students. The boarding school, as a mode of schooling, not only has a relatively long history in the West, but also has been practiced in China for nearly 40 years or so, covering all stages from kindergarten to university. There has been a great deal of academic research around boarding school, mainly including studies on the functions of boarding school ( White, 2004 ), the internal management problems of schools ( Zhang, 2006 ), the impact of boarding school on the physical and mental development of students ( Kahane, 1988 ), and the relationship between boarding school and families ( Ben-David and Erez-Darvish, 1997 ). With the increasing size of boarding school and the younger age of boarding students, boarding school has become an important and unique part of the school system. In recent years, research on the boarding school has gradually shifted from exploring the value implications to promoting students’ development, such as the impact of boarding on students’ academic performance ( Foliano et al., 2019 ) and the impact of boarding on students’ mental health ( Yang and Yan, 2022 ). However, these studies only discuss the relationship between boarding school and one aspect of student development. Indeed, student development encompasses multiple aspects of the educational process and developmental content ( Pan, 2019 ). At the same time, some studies have pointed out that although boarding school helps students accept multiculturalism, promote students’ socialization ( White, 2004 ) and enhance students’ academic performance ( Zhou and Xu, 2021 ), there are also some negative effects, such as affecting the formation of students’ personality ( Schaverien, 2010 ) causing social and emotional distress to students ( Kleinfeld and Bloom, 1977 ), and affecting physical development ( Xu et al., 2014 ). So, how does boarding actually affect the overall development of students? Are there differences in the role of different aspects of student development in a boarding environment? It is not only a summary of the effectiveness of the boarding school that has been implemented for a long time, but also an important question that needs to be answered urgently in order to promote the normalization and under-aging of boarding school.

The correlation between boarding school and the development of students

Many studies have centered on the impact of boarding school on student development at different school stages, types of boarding school and instruments. However, there are some differences in the findings of the studies, which are broadly divided into three categories.

The first view is that boarding school has a significant positive predictive effect on student development. On the one hand, boarding school increases and standardizes the study time of students by providing a collectivized learning and living environment ( Yao et al., 2018 ), which in turn improves students’ academic achievement ( Curto and Fryer, 2014 ; Behaghel et al., 2017 ; Foliano et al., 2019 ). At the same time, boarding school also reduces students’ undesirable behaviors, such as a decline in absenteeism ( Martin et al., 2014 ), and has a positive impact on students’ cognitive development. A survey by the American Association of Boarding Schools (2013) found that 68% of boarding school students believed that boarding school had helped them improve self-discipline, maturity, independence, cooperative learning, and critical thinking. On the other hand, group home living increases contact between students and promotes emotional communication and companionship among peers ( Martin et al., 2014 ; Bosmans and Kerns, 2015 ). This close peer relationship not only helps boarding students better adapt to school life ( Segal, 2013 ) and enhance their ability to live independently ( Ma, 2012 ), but also increases student satisfaction with school and life, and promotes the development of students’ healthy personality ( Wu et al., 2011 ). In addition, good peer relationships also serve as role models that can continuously stimulate students’ motivation and promote their interest in learning ( Kennedy, 2010 ). Multi-subject attachment theory suggests that the scope of the attachment relationship is not limited to the parent–child relationship, and that teachers, as one of the important attachment objects for boarding students, can to some extent “substitute for the parents” and “compensate” for the lack of parent–child relationship of boarding students ( Verschueren and Koomen, 2012 ). Supported by the theory of humanities and sociology and with the help of students’ autobiographies, White (2004) also amply substantiated the important role of boarding school in the development of students.

The second view is that boarding school has a significant negative predictive effect on student development. First of all, boarding school adopts a relatively closed management mode, which weakens the influence of the family and society in the growth of students, and causes certain harm to the physical and mental development of students ( Schaverien, 2010 ). Especially for younger students, they are more dependent on their families, so the role of family environment is more important for their socialization ( Yan et al., 2013 ). Secondly, boarding school is strictly regulated and competition within schools is fierce ( Yao et al., 2018 ). Coupled with the dilution of parent–child relationship, students lack effective emotional support ( Ye and Pan, 2007 ). As a result, boarding students are more likely to develop aversion to studying, leading to a decline in academic performance ( Lu and Du, 2010 ), which in turn leads to undesirable behaviors, such as truancy, school bullying and dropping out of school ( Pfeiffer and Pinquart, 2014 ; Shi and Zhao, 2016 ). Finally, the boarding environment increases the density of interactions between students, which tends to produce the contagion of negative emotions among peers ( Li and Lin, 2019 ). It usually manifests itself in the form of interpersonal hypersensitivity, accompanied by depression, anxiety, paranoia and various other negative emotions and psychological problems ( Niknami et al., 2011 ; Mander et al., 2014 ).

The third view is that boarding does not show significant differences in learning goals, learning engagement and mental health of students ( Li, 2007 ; Martin et al., 2014 ). On the one hand, although boarding students have more psychological problems at the time of admission, as they move up the grades, they become more resilient to school life and their psychological problems gradually decrease ( Liu et al., 2004 ; Xiao et al., 2010 ). On the other hand, boarding students can only communicate with their parents by phone as well as at home on weekends, which can not only dilute parent–child conflicts, but also satisfy students’ psychology of freedom and independence. Therefore, it is conducive to the development of parent–child relationship ( Shen, 2021 ). Additionally, the problem of parental attachment is mitigated due to the growing influence of teacher-student and peer relationships on students ( Wu et al., 2021 ).

Potential moderators of the association between boarding school and the development of students

Different school stages can affect the effectiveness of boarding school on student development. Most studies identify age characteristics as the main factor influencing students’ mental health ( Papworth, 2014 ; Wang and Mao, 2015 ). Primary school boarding students are young and have an imperfect level of physical and mental development. When primary school students are faced with an unfamiliar living environment, they often experience psychological maladaptation and difficulties in interpersonal interactions ( Wang, 2015 ). Due to their relatively complete physical and mental development, junior middle school boarding students have basically formed psychological qualities such as cooperation, self-discipline and freedom, and have a relatively favorable psychological environment. It further supports the negative effects of underage boarding on children’s emotions and socialization ( Wang, 2015 ). In addition, research is more divergent when it comes to academic development. Some scholars believed that there is no significant difference in the impact of boarding school on the academic performance of students in different grades ( Bozdoğan et al., 2014 ), and at the same time, boarding has the same degree of positive impact on students in all grades ( Gao, 2017 ). However, some scholars used instrumental variable regression to show that boarding has a more significant impact on the academic performance of primary school students, but not on junior middle school students ( Qiao and Di, 2014 ). Thus, the effect of boarding school on student development may be moderated by different school stages.

Different types of boarding school affect the effectiveness of boarding on student development. In general, boarding school can be categorized into rural boarding school and urban boarding school. Studies with rural boarding students concluded that boarding school has a positive impact on the academic performance of rural students ( Gao, 2017 ), which is consistent with the findings of numerous studies ( Du et al., 2010 ; Kennedy, 2010 ); but studies with urban boarding students found that urban boarding students have a significant advantage in academic performance ( Xu, 2019 ) and a better psychological condition than rural boarding students ( Luo, 2013 ). Compared to rural boarding students, urban boarding students have better access to social resources, boarding environment, faculty, and more advanced concept of family education ( Tan, 2020 ). In summary, there are some differences in the impact that different types of boarding school have on student development.

In terms of instruments, standardized scales, standardized tests, and self-administered questionnaires are widely used at present. Therefore, they can be divided into two categories: standardized and non-standardized instruments. The use of different instruments may affect the effectiveness of boarding on student development. For example, a self-administered questionnaire, the Mental Health Questionnaire for Junior Middle School Students, was used to measure the mental health level of students, and the results showed that the mental health of boarding students is significantly higher than that of non-boarding students ( Zhang, 2020 ); the results measured using the Diagnostic Test of Mental Health (MHT) is the opposite of the former, showing that the mental health of non-boarding students is significantly better than that of boarding students ( Chen, 2016 ). It follows that the effect of boarding school on student development may be moderated by the instruments.

Current study

In summary, the overall effect of boarding school on student development needs to be further tested. In addition, factors such as different school stages, types of boarding school, and instruments may moderate the relationship between boarding school and student development. Established research mainly discusses one aspect of student development and the findings are not consistent. Therefore, this study adopts the meta-analytical approach to integrate, evaluate and analyze the existing empirical studies on boarding school and student development in order to draw general and generalized conclusions.

Materials and methods

Data retrieval strategies.

This study utilized a variety of sources to collect literature related to the impact of boarding school on student development over the past three decades, both domestically and internationally. Specifically, firstly, the foreign language databases “Web of Science,” “Springer” and “Google Scholar” were searched with “boarding school,” “boarding” and “effect” and “impact” as the subject words, and a total of 1,325 foreign language documents were obtained. Secondly, in the Chinese databases of “CNKI,” “Wanfang Data” and “VIP “, a total of 1,524 Chinese literature was obtained by searching “boarding” and “boarding school” as the titles. The date of the search was 21 October 2023.

Inclusion criteria

In this study, the Endnote20 literature management tool was used to screen the included literature according to the following criteria: (a) The topic of the study was the effect of boarding on students’ development; (b) The research subjects were primary and secondary school students; (c) The study needs to take boarding school as the independent variable; (d) The type of the study is an experiment or quasi-experiment comparing the differences in the development of boarding and non-boarding students, in which a single group of experiments need to provide pre- and post-tests data; (e) The study provides complete data that can calculate the effect size, such as the sample size (N), the mean (Means), the standard deviation (SD), or the p -value, t-value, and the correlation coefficient (r), and so forth; (f) Identical studies that had been published in a different format are excluded. After several rounds of literature screening and elimination of literature that did not meet the criteria, 49 papers were finally included and a total of 91 effect sizes were generated that could be used for meta-analysis. Among them, there were 35 articles in Chinese and 14 articles in foreign languages. The literature span from 1986 to 2023, but it was primarily focused on the last decade ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 1 . Flowchart of the inclusion protocol.

Coding procedure

To further explore and analyze the impact of boarding school on students’ development, the key information was extracted and features coded from the included literature. In this study, 49 articles were independently coded by two coders to ensure reliability and consistency of the coding. There are three main aspects of coding:

The first is the basic information aspect of the literature, including the names of the authors, the time of publication, and data about the effect sizes.

Secondly, in terms of the dependent variable, this study used student development as the dependent variable. According to Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Anderson, 2009 ), student development is categorized into three dimensions: cognition, behavior, and affect and attitude. In addition, the dimension of physical development has been added in line with the boarding schools’ provision of food and accommodation. Among them, the cognitive dimension mainly consists of students’ academic performance and cognitive ability. Academic performance is a sufficient but not necessary condition for the cognitive development, thus a distinction is made here between academic performance and cognitive ability. The behavioral dimension includes both pro-social behaviors, etc., as well as problematic behaviors such as school bullying and absenteeism. The affective and attitudinal dimension includes students’ emotions, self-esteem, and motivation, etc. The physical development dimension includes the student’s BMI, nutrition, etc.

The third is the moderator variables, including three variables: school stage, the type of boarding school and instruments. First of all, the development of students is stage-specific and sequential, and the impact of choosing boarding at different school stages is also different, mainly including three stages: primary school, junior middle school and senior high school. Secondly, boarding schools can be divided into different types according to different classification criteria. In order to harmonize the definition of boarding school in domestic and foreign studies, this study mainly categorized boarding school into urban boarding school and rural boarding school according to geography. Finally, according to the degree of standardization of the instruments, they are divided into standardized and non-standardized instruments, where standardized instruments refer to the use of standardized questionnaires, scales, etc. to measure student development.

The included literature were coded according to the above characteristics, including author information, year of publication, dependent variable dimensions, school stages, school types, instruments, and effect size. The effect sizes d reported in the collected literature were transformed by the following equation: g  =  d [1−(3/(4 df−1)), df = n 1  + n 2 -2. If the included studies did not report an effect size d, they were calculated from raw data such as sample size, mean, and standard deviation: d = (M1–M2)/Spooled, Spooled = [(n 1 –1) s 1 2  + (n 2 –1) s 2 2 /n1 + n 2 -2] 1/2 . In addition, if the included studies did not fully report raw data such as sample size, mean, standard deviation, etc., they were transformed by the χ 2 value, F value or t value of the raw data: d  = 2[ χ 2 /(N− χ 2 ) 1/2 ; d  = 2/F (n 1  + n 2 )/n 1 n 2 ] 1/2; d  =  t /(n 1  + n 2 /n 1 n 2 ) 1/2 .

Effect size

Due to the small sample size of this study, Hedges’ g -value was selected to measure the impact of boarding school on students’ development. According to Cohen’s criterion for judging the effect size: when the effect size is less than 0.2, its influence is small; when the effect size is more than 0.2 and less than 0.5, there is a moderate influence; when the effect size is more than 0.8, it has a large influence ( Figure 2 ).

Figure 2 . Meta-analytic framework diagram.

Statistical analysis

The concept of meta-analysis was pioneered by Glass, an American psychologist. Meta-analysis, which aims to synthesize existing research, is a research process and systematic method for quantitatively combining and analyzing the effects of multiple conflicting studies on a given topic ( Glass, 1976 ). In this study, the meta-analysis software Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 3.0 was used for data processing and analysis, and relevant data from the literature, such as the values of sample size, standard deviation, and mean, were entered into CMA for relevant calculations.

Publication bias analysis

A publication bias analysis is first required before any specific data analysis of the sample literature can be conducted ( Viechtbauer, 2007 ). Qualitative funnel plots and quantitative Egger’s were used for publication bias tests. Based on the funnel plot indicating ( Figure 3 ) that the effect sizes of the study sample were focused on the upper middle region and more evenly distributed on both sides of the axis, it is initially judged that there is less likelihood of publication bias in the data. The study further utilized Egger’s method and the results of the data showed that t  = 0.914 < 1.96 and p  = 0.182 > 0.05, which satisfied the conditions of no publication bias ( Egger et al., 1997 ). In summary, the results of meta-analysis were less likely to be biased for publication ( Tables 1 , 2 ).

Figure 3 . Funnel plot.

Table 1 . Coding table for meta-analytic variables.

Table 2 . Summary of studies included in the meta-analysis.

Heterogeneity analysis

There may be differences between the different studies included due to a number of factors. To avoid the inability to combine effect sizes due to the presence of heterogeneity in the study, the I 2 statistic is generally used to determine the degree of heterogeneity in the sample, and thus to determine an effect model that is more appropriate for the study ( Higgins, 2003 ). When I 2  < 75%, a fixed effects model is used; when I 2  > 75%, a random effects model is used. According to the test results, I 2  = 99.309% > 75% and Q  = 13020.408 ( p  < 0.001), the study had high heterogeneity ( Table 3 ). Therefore, the random effect model would be chosen to analyze the effect of boarding school on student development in this study.

Table 3 . Heterogeneity test results.

Main effects test

The results of the study indicated that boarding school was not a significant predictor of overall student development ( g  = 0.002, 95%CI = [−0.073, 0.078], Z  = 0.053, p  > 0.05). The study further examined the effect of boarding school on different dimensions of student development. According to the results of Table 4 , the effect sizes from large to small were cognitive dimension ( g  = 0.248, p  < 0.001) > affective and attitudinal dimension ( g  = |−0.159|, p  < 0.05) > behavioral dimension ( g  = |−0.115|, p  > 0.05) > physical development dimension ( g  = |−0.038|, p  > 0.05). The results of the meta-analysis showed that boarding school had little effect on students’ overall development, but there were significant differences across the sub-dimensions. Specifically, boarding school has a moderate positive impact on students’ cognitive development and a small negative impact on students’ behavioral development, affective and attitudinal development, and physical development.

Table 4 . The overall impact of boarding school on student development.

Moderating effect test

Although the overall effect of boarding school on student development was small, there was significant heterogeneity in the effect size of different dimensions. Therefore, subgroup analyses are required. Moderating effect test was conducted using random effect model around different school stages, types of boarding school, and instruments.

School stage

This study focuses on the impact of boarding school on the development of students in primary and secondary schools, so the school stages are coded into three groups: primary school, junior middle school and senior high school according to the current classification standards. Overall, there was a significant difference in the overall effect of different school stages on student development ( Q  = 6.895, p  < 0.05), with the effect strengths between school stages in the following order: junior middle school ( g  = |−0.274|) > senior high school ( g  = |−0.158|) > primary school ( g  = 0.007) ( Table 5 ). Specifically, there was a significant difference in the effect of boarding school on students’ physical development in the physical development dimension ( Q  = 13.481, p  < 0.001). Among them, boarding school had a negative effect on the physical development of primary school students ( g  = −1.48, p  < 0.05), while it had a positive effect on the physical development of junior middle school students ( g  = 0.123, p  < 0.001). In addition, there was no significant difference in the cognitive dimension ( Q  = 0.144, p  = 0.931), behavioral dimension ( Q  = 4.389, p  = 0.111) and affective and attitudinal dimension ( Q  = 0.792, p  = 0.673) ( Table 6 ).

Table 5 . The moderating effect of school stages on boarding school and student development.

Table 6 . The moderating effect of sub-dimension across school stages.

Type of boarding school

In this study, boarding schools were categorized into two types, rural boarding schools and urban boarding schools according to geography. Overall, there was a significant difference in the overall effect of different school types on student development ( Q  = 4.819, p  < 0.05), with effect strengths in the following order: urban boarding ( g  = 0.126) > rural boarding ( g  = |−0.077|) ( Table 7 ). Specifically, on the cognitive development dimension, there was a significant difference in the effect of boarding school on students’ cognitive development ( Q  = 5.903, p  < 0.05). In this case, boarding school had no significant effect on the cognitive development of rural boarding students ( g  = 0.040, p  < 0.05), while it produced a significant positive effect on the cognitive development of urban boarding students ( g  = 0.289, p  < 0.001). In addition, there was no significant difference in the development of students across school types by boarding school on either the behavioral dimension ( Q  = 0.360, p  = 0.549) or the affective and attitudinal dimension (Q = 0.251, p  = 0.617) ( Table 8 ).

Table 7 . The moderating effect of school types on boarding school and student development.

Table 8 . The moderating effect of sub-dimension across school type.

Instruments

The reliability and scientificity of the findings of quantitative research will be affected to some extent by the research tool. As can be seen from the sample of literature, most of the studies used standardized tests or maturity scales to measure student development, while a small number of studies developed self-administered questionnaires to report students’ development. Therefore, the instruments were categorized into standardized and non-standardized instruments to further explore the moderating effect of instruments on the relationship between boarding school and student development. Overall, there was no significant difference in the overall impact of the different instruments on student development ( Q  = 0.128, p  > 0.05). Specifically, on the behavioral dimension, there was a significant difference in the effect of boarding school on students’ behavioral development ( Q  = 4.274, p  < 0.05). In particular, there was no significant negative effect of boarding school on students’ behavioral development when standardized instruments were used ( g  = −0.029, p  > 0.05), while boarding school had a significant negative effect on students’ behavioral development when non-standardized instruments were used ( g  = −0.319, p  < 0.001; Table 9 ). In addition, there were no significant differences between the boarding school on the cognitive dimension ( Q  = 0.004, p  = 0.951), the affective and attitudinal dimension ( Q  = 0.198, p  = 0.657), and the physical development dimension ( Q  = 0.498, p  = 0.481) ( Table 10 ).

Table 9 . The moderating effect of instruments on boarding school and student development.

Table 10 . The moderating effect of sub-dimension across instruments.

The association between boarding school and the development of students

Compared with non-boarding school, boarding school has a smaller effect on student development ( g  = 0.002, p  > 0.05), which supports the third view that there is no significant predictive effect of boarding on student development ( Xiao et al., 2010 ; Martin et al., 2014 ; Sparks, 2015 ). The reason for this has much to do with the multidimensional concept of “student development.” There are many theories about the student development, the more typical ones are Social Learning Theory, Person-Environment Theory, Ecosystem Theory and so on. Together, these theories emphasize that student development is influenced by various factors, such as genetic, environmental, educational, and individuals. The boarding school provides students with a relatively closed learning environment, while integrating their studies and lives organically. In boarding schools, the extent to which students can be influenced by the environment in their interactions with it depends not only on the environment itself, but also on the students’ own initiative and motivation, school education, family environment and other factors ( Du et al., 2010 ).

The results of the data show that boarding school reached a statistically significant level on cognitive development and affective and attitudinal development of the students. Therefore, the study only focuses on these two sub-dimensions for discussion. Boarding school has a positive and significant predictive effect on students’ cognitive development ( g  = 0.248, p  < 0.001), which is consistent with previous findings ( Kennedy, 2010 ; Lu and Du, 2010 ; Gao, 2017 ). Boarding life promotes the development of students’ self-awareness and increases their independence and self-discipline ( Ma, 2012 ). These positive psychological qualities can be transferred to students’ learning, which in turn promotes the development of their cognitive abilities ( TABS, 2023 ). Boarding school presents a negative and significant predictive effect on students’ affective and attitudinal development ( g  = −0.159, p  < 0.05), which provides evidence for the second view ( Ye and Pan, 2007 ; Mander et al., 2014 ). When a student enters a boarding school, he or she will be faced with a completely new environment, as well as the stripping away of parental attachments. Attachment theory suggests that stable attachment relationships are critical for students’ academic, emotional, and social development ( Granot and Mayseless, 2001 ), while parents are the most important attachment relationship in students’ development ( Bosmans and Kerns, 2015 ). In addition, boarding schools often have a closed management model, which can easily lead to problems such as academic overload and depression among students ( Schaverien, 2010 ).

School stage as a moderator

The relationship between boarding school and student development is moderated by different school stages ( Q  = 6.895, p  < 0.05). Among them, boarding school has a significant negative effect on the development of junior middle school students, which may be related to the stage of physical and mental development that students are in ( Wang, 2015 ). According to Piaget’s Cognitive-developmental Theory, junior middle school students are in the transition from the stage of concrete operations to the stage of formal operations, a period in which students shift from perceptual thinking to logical thinking. With the increasing difficulty of knowledge acquisition, it is a great challenge for students’ cognitive development. In addition, students’ physical functions and forms continue to develop and improve during this period, but their psychology is in a semi-mature and emotionally unstable stage. Some students will face a crisis of self-identity and a conflict of role confusion ( Chen and Liu, 2019 ). Therefore, teachers should not only help students to stimulate their interest in learning, but also strengthen the support of families for students, and parents should be involved in students’ lives and learning.

Type of boarding school as a moderator

According to the results of the data, the type of boarding school plays a moderating role between boarding school and student development ( Q  = 4.819, p  < 0.05). Among them, rural boarding school has a negative effect on student development, which supports the views of Chen et al. (2018) , Lu et al. (2017) , Jiang and Xu (2020) , and others. The result that urban boarding school has a positive effect on student development supports Luo (2013) , Xu (2019) , Blau and Blau (2021) and others. The main reason for the disparity lies in the economic differences between urban and rural areas. From the students’ point of view, rural boarding students are more likely to come from rural areas, where their families are economically limited and their parents are generally less educated. From the perspective of schools, urban boarding schools have better accommodations, hardware facilities, and teachers than rural boarding schools ( Chen and Qi, 2010 ). Thus, it can be seen that boarding schools create variability in student development through differences in student population and level of schooling. In order to change the negative impact of the boarding school on rural students, the most important thing is to increase the total amount of financial input, and the gap between urban and rural areas is essentially an economic development gap. In addition, it is necessary to constantly expand the sources of funding to ensure the effective operation of the rural boarding school.

Instruments as a moderator

There is no significant difference in the effect of the instruments on student development under the boarding condition, which suggests that the relationship between boarding school and student development is not moderated by the instruments ( Q  = 0.128, p  > 0.05), but it is still of some analytical value. First, in terms of the specific effect size of the instruments, the effect size of using standardized instruments is smaller than that of non-standardized instruments. Although this difference does not reach the statistically significant level, it reflects the development trend of the two, that is, the measurement results of the non-standardized instruments are inflated compared with the standardized instruments. This is because standardized instruments are usually designed to be rigorous and preset the results within a certain range; whereas non-standardized instruments are usually a form of self-assessment and are more subjective, with flexible and open-ended results. Therefore, it can be presumed that standardized instruments are more realistic and reliable. Secondly, in terms of the scientific validity of the instruments, although the non-standardized instruments have not been recognized by the academic community and tested in practice like the mature standardized instruments, the operational procedures have been strictly followed and their reliability and validity tests have been tested, thus guaranteeing the scientificity and effectiveness of the instruments. This may also be one of the reason why the between-group effect failed to reach a statistically significant level.

Limitations and future directions

The study used a meta-analytic approach to systematically analyze the effects of boarding school on the overall development of primary and secondary school students as well as on different sub-dimensions. In addition, the study explored the moderating effects of different school stages, types of boarding school and instruments. However, there are some limitations to this study. First of all, the number of moderating variables included is limited. There are many factors that affect student development, such as gender, family economic situation, peer relationships, etc., and more moderating variables should be included in the future. Secondly, the results of the study are based on the literature sample, which will be affected by factors such as the quality of the literature sample, the sample size and the research period. Finally, student development is a comprehensive and multidimensional concept that should also include the development of students’ skills, literacy, information literacy, etc. ( Pan, 2019 ). Therefore, in the future, the validity of the findings of this study should be further verified by adopting a more scientific and comprehensive dimensionalization of the core concept of “student development.”

This study utilized a meta-analytic research methodology to explore the impact of boarding school on student development in primary and secondary schools. The results showed that boarding school had no significant predictive effect on students’ overall development, but it was a significant positive predictor of cognitive development and a significant negative predictor of affective and attitudinal development. The relationship between boarding school and student development was also moderated by the stage and type school. The conclusions of the study provide some reference significance for the subsequent theoretical research, and provide new insights and suggestions for the implementation and improvement of the boarding school in practice.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

ZZ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. YF: Writing – original draft. YX: Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.

The author (s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: boarding school, student development, meta-analysis, primary and secondary school students, effect size

Citation: Zhong Z, Feng Y and Xu Y (2024) The impact of boarding school on student development in primary and secondary schools: a meta-analysis. Front. Psychol . 15:1359626. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1359626

Received: 21 December 2023; Accepted: 15 March 2024; Published: 28 March 2024.

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Copyright © 2024 Zhong, Feng and Xu. 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) and the copyright owner(s) 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: Yongqi Xu, [email protected]

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• Published: 23 September 2023

The impact of boarding schools on the development of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities in adolescents

• Fang Chang 1 ,
• Yanan Huo 1 ,
• Songyan Zhang 1 ,
• Hang Zeng 1 &
• Bin Tang 1  

BMC Public Health volume  23 , Article number:  1852 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Since China adopted a policy to eliminate rural learning centers, boarding has become an important feature of the current rural student community. However, there is a lack of consensus on the impact of boarding schools on students' cognitive and non-cognitive development. This study investigates the effect of boarding schools on the development of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of junior high school students in rural northwest China.

Using a sample of 5,660 seventh-grade students from 160 rural junior high schools across 19 counties, we identify a causal relationship between boarding and student abilities with the instrumental variables (IV) approach.

The results suggest that boarding positively influences memory and attention, while it has no significant effect on other cognitive abilities such as reasoning, transcription speed, and accuracy. Furthermore, we find no significant association between boarding and the development of non-cognitive skills.

Conclusions

Given the widespread prevalence of boarding schools in rural regions, our study highlights the growing importance of improving school management to promote the development of students’ cognitive abilities and integrating the development of non-cognitive or social-emotional abilities into students’ daily routines.

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Introduction

Human ability is composed of cognitive and non-cognitive components, both of which are crucial to an individual's life [ 1 , 2 ]. The influence of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities has been observed in various aspects of life, including academic performance, educational choices, wages, labor market outcomes, employment decisions, health behaviors, and social integration [ 3 , 4 , 5 ].

Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities are core components of human capital [ 1 , 2 , 6 ]. Cognitive abilities are the endowments for extracting, storing and utilizing information from the objective world, This encompasses skills such as logical reasoning, abstract thinking and memory [ 7 ], while non-cognitive abilities have emerged as a concept distinct from cognitive abilities, aiming to distinguish factors beyond cognitive itself. These encompass qualities such as motivation, authority, work norms, self-control, perseverance, and more [ 8 ]. Numerous researches have shown that cognitive and non-cognitive abilities play an important role in academic performance, educational decisions, wages, labor market performance, employment choices, health behaviors and social integration [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 8 , 9 ]. Prior research has revealed a considerable disparity between the cognitive abilities of rural and urban students, with urban students scoring significantly higher on word and mathematics tests by 0.75 and 0.54 standard deviations, respectively [ 6 , 10 ]. Rural students also tend to exhibit lower levels of non-cognitive skills, including depression, self-esteem, and values, with left-behind children experiencing even greater disadvantages [ 11 ].

Beginning in 2001, China adopted a policy to eliminate rural learning centers, leading to the consolidation of educational resources and the growth of rural boarding schools. By the end of 2016, 26.08 million rural students were enrolled as compulsory boarders, comprising 27.5% of the total student population. Of these, 16.66 million were boarding students in rural junior high schools, amounting to a boarding rate of 58.6% [ 12 ]. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of the cognitive and non-cognitive development of boarding students in rural areas has become essential.

Studies have shown that the communal learning environment in boarding schools can increase learning time, optimize teaching resources, and provide more opportunities for boarders to communicate with their teachers and peers [ 13 , 14 ]. However, boarding students may also be exposed to at-risk peers, which can have negative effects on their development [ 15 , 16 ]. Boarding can also cause stress for students as they are separated from their familiar surroundings and parents, which can be particularly significant during critical growth stages [ 17 ]. Consequently, there is a lack of consensus on the impact of boarding schools on students' cognitive and non-cognitive development.

Extant research on boarding schools has primarily focused on elite schools in developed countries, which have generally been associated with positive academic performance [ 18 ]. However, public boarding schools have been set up in many developed countries for marginalized groups, such as the SEED public boarding schools in the US and the Internet Excellence program in France. Quasi-experimental studies have shown that boarding has had a significant positive impact on the academic performance of disadvantaged students in reading and mathematics [ 19 ]. Similarly, rural boarding schools in France have positively impacted academic performance, particularly for outstanding boarders, with significant improvements in French and mathematics scores two years after enrollment [ 14 ]. Nonetheless, studies in Turkey have reported a negative correlation between boarding and academic performance in Grades 5 to 9 [ 15 ]. Boarding also has a significantly negative impact on students' mental health, with boarders displaying more problem behaviors, such as anxiety, depression, hostility, substance abuse, alcohol dependency, and school bullying [ 20 , 21 ]. Notably, the impact of boarding varies at different stages of development. For instance, Mander et al. (2015) found no significant differences in social, emotional, and psychological well-being between boarders and non-boarders in elementary schools [ 22 ]. However, boarders in secondary schools exhibited a higher incidence of emotional difficulties, depression, anxiety, and stress compared to non-boarders. Given the mixed evidence, it is crucial to carefully consider the potential positive and negative impacts of boarding, especially for disadvantaged students attending public boarding schools.

As boarding school enrollment continues to rise in China, researchers have investigated the effects of boarding on students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities and reported conflicting findings. Qiao and Di (2014) found that boarding significantly improved rural students' performance in mathematics [ 23 ], while Mo et al. (2012) reported a significant negative effect of boarding on primary school students' math scores [ 24 ]. Similarly, Wang et al. (2016), Li et al. (2018), and Zhu et al. (2019) found that boarding had no significant impact on students' standardized math scores or even reduced their standardized language scores [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Most studies indicate that boarding has a negative impact on students' non-cognitive skills. Rural boarders are more likely to experience bullying, loneliness, and depression in schools and have lower self-esteem, resilience, and emotional intelligence than non-boarders [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Taken together, these results suggest that the effects of boarding on students' academic and non-academic outcomes are complex and may vary depending on a range of factors, including the type of boarding school, the students' developmental stage, and their socio-economic background.

This paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on the impact of boarding on rural students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities in three ways. Firstly, the literature has primarily measured cognitive abilities using subject-specific scores, which may not fully capture the breadth of cognitive abilities. There are numerous studies on cognitive abilities in different disciplines. psychologists commonly differentiate between fluid intelligence, which emphasizes more general capacities such as logical reasoning and abstract thinking, and crystallized intelligence, which is related to the accumulation of concrete knowledge and experience [ 31 , 32 ]. Academic performance, such as math and reading tests is often used to measure crystallized intelligence [ 33 ]. Conversely, fluid intelligence is frequently assessed through quotient tests (IQ tests), exemplified bu tools like the WISC-IV and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices [ 34 ]. To improve accuracy and precision in measuring cognitive abilities, this paper utilizes the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, and standardized mathematics scores. Secondly, the literature has relied on self-administered questionnaires to measure non-cognitive abilities, which may lack comprehensiveness and comparability. In contrast, this paper uses the Big Five Personality Inventory to measure non-cognitive abilities accurately [ 35 ]. Finally, prior studies have examined the effects of boarding on cognitive or non-cognitive abilities separately, which prevents a comprehensive assessment of the impact of boarding on students' human capital.

This study uses an instrumental variable approach to address endogeneity issues and analyzes data from 160 junior high schools in rural northwest China to illustrate the effects of boarding on students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. The results indicate a significant positive effect of boarding on the cognitive abilities of rural junior high school students, particularly in memory and attention, areas associated with fluid intelligence. However, boarding has no significant impact on the non-cognitive abilities of rural students. Furthermore, we provide evidence of heterogeneity in the impact of boarding on cognitive and non-cognitive abilities by gender. We also find a significant positive effect on the cognitive abilities of left-behind children and students from families with better socioeconomic status.

Participants

We conducted our study on first-year rural high school (seventh grade) students in three prefectures from two provinces in northwest China. These provinces were below the national median in terms of GDP, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2015). Hence, the sample of rural students in these provinces can be considered representative of students in low-income areas in rural China.

We constructed our sample in two steps. First, we selected 23 counties from three prefectures, two counties with more developed economic status were excluded, and the remaining were included. Second, we obtained a list of all 496 junior high schools from the counties in Step 1. After excluding non-rural schools and schools with less than 20 students in the seventh grade (to address potential sample attrition or school merger issues), we obtained a final sample containing 5,660 seventh-grade students from 160 schools (see Table 1 ).

The sample was collected in two phases. The first phase was carried out in 2015, which involved administering tests to collect information on basic details of the sample students, mathematics teachers, and schools using questionnaires. Mathematics scores of students were also collected through tests (see Table 2 ). In the second phase, conducted in 2016, additional tests were administered, which included more Raven's tests, Wechsler tests, the Big Five Personality test, and the Perseverance Scale (see Table 2 ).

The data collection involved three steps: (1) recruiting and training researchers, (2) conducting questionnaire tests in schools, and (3) administering cognitive and non-cognitive ability tests. For (1), the project team recruited college students as researchers and provided uniform training and simulation exercises to ensure recruited researchers mastered standardized operations of the study, thus reducing measurement errors caused by inconsistent implementation by researchers. For (2), researchers organized students to take standardized math tests and questionnaires, which were developed by the project team in collaboration with the best secondary school teachers and calibrated to match the academic level appropriate for seventh-grade rural students. All sample schools used standardized math tests with identical questions assigned by the project team and proctored by researchers on-site. Researchers also conducted one-on-one questionnaire interviews with principals and mathematics teachers. In (3), cognitive ability tests included Raven's test and Wechsler's test. Raven's test was administered in a group and took approximately 45 min. The Wechsler test needed to be conducted one-on-one and required highly trained personnel, participants therefore received training in professional institutions. Additionally, the project team organized several practical exercises in non-sample schools to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the Wechsler test. Given the significant testing and time costs of the Wechsler test, three students from each sample class were randomly selected to take the Wechsler test individually. Students are selected based on their mathematics scores in the first research sample class, which were rank ordered into three groups: high, medium, and low; one student from each group was randomly selected for the Wechsler's test. The rest of the class took the Raven's test. The non-cognitive skills component primarily consisted of the Big Five personality test and the Perseverance Scale test, both of which were included in the student questionnaire.

• Cognitive ability

The objective of this research is to investigate students' cognitive abilities, measured using three tests: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven's IQ test), and a mathematics test. Cattell's (1987) suggested that cognitive abilities are divisible into two categories: crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence [ 36 ]. The former pertains to skills attained through experience and knowledge, such as vocabulary, calculation, and verbal comprehension, whereas the latter refers to neural development, including perception, memory, and reasoning ability.

The WISC-IV is a tool for assessing intelligence in children aged 6 to 16 and comprises four indices: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed, along with the total IQ score [ 37 ]. The Chinese version of the WISC-IV short-form scale was employed in this research, which contains four subtests representing the four indices [ 38 ]. Footnote 1 The four subtests utilized for estimating the WISC IQ score were similarities, digit span, coding, and matrix reasoning. Similarities is designed to capture crystallized intelligence, while digit span, coding, and matrix reasoning are intended to measure fluid intelligence [ 39 ]. The aggregated WISC IQ score was used in the regression analysis.

The Raven's IQ test is a nonverbal test of intelligence that consists of pictorial questions related to spatial reasoning and pattern matching, which are designed to assess observational and thinking ability [ 40 ]. The test is culture-, language-, and age-neutral and consists of 60 questions that can be converted into IQ scores based on normative patterns. It is defined to capture fluid intelligence and was used for robustness testing in this study [ 31 ]. Footnote 2

The mathematics test, administered to all students in the sample, was developed by experienced secondary school mathematics teachers based on the standard high school syllabus. The test captures crystallized intelligence and was used for robustness testing in this study [ 33 ]. Several pre-studies of the questions were carried out by the research team to assess their suitability.

• Non-cognitive ability

Non-cognitive abilities represent a fundamental component of human capital and can be examined through various skills and traits, including self-control, self-esteem, self-confidence, due diligence, perseverance, self-awareness, and communication skills [ 45 ]. We employed the Big Five personality traits and the Short Grit Scales as measures of non-cognitive abilities.

DeYoung's Big Five personality traits consist of neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness, which capture diverse aspects of personality. Neuroticism assesses emotional instability and sensitivity, such as anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsivity, and vulnerability. Extraversion captures interpersonal skills, positive affect, and energy levels. Openness refers to the imagination and intellectual curiosity as reflected in personal fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values. Agreeableness evaluates how a person interacts with others through levels of trust, frankness, altruism, submissiveness, humility, and gentleness. Finally, conscientiousness assesses competence, order responsibility, effortful achievement, self-discipline, and thoughtfulness [ 46 ]. The Big Five personality traits have been widely studied and are recognized as being stable across different languages, disciplines, and raters [ 47 , 48 ].

The Short Grit Scale, developed by Duckworth et al. (2007), measures perseverance and passion for long-term goals [ 49 ]. This scale consists of eight questions that evaluate student attitudes and behaviors towards long-term goals, such as the tendency to prioritize new ideas over existing plans [ 50 ]. The Short Grit Scale has demonstrated strong internal consistency, test–retest stability, and high predictive validity [ 51 ]. Grit is considered a facet of Big Five conscientiousness and has gained recent attention in the literature on human achievement. In this study, we utilized it for robustness testing.

Model design

Consider a statistical model that links a student's cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, boarding status, and other determinants of ability as represented by:

where \({Y}_{jis}\) denotes the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of student i in school s in county j; \(Boardin{g}_{jis}\) is an indicator of the student's boarding status (1 if boarding, 0 otherwise), and \({W}_{jis}\) is a set of exogenous covariates that includes student (e.g., age and gender), family (e.g., parental education), and school (e.g., teacher qualifications and school facilities) characteristics; \({\mu }_{j}\) is county fixed effect; and the error term \({\varepsilon }_{jis}\) captures the influence of all unobserved factors.

Equation (1) may be subject to endogeneity issues for two main reasons. First, reverse causality may arise where students with lower cognitive abilities or academic performance could be more likely to choose boarding [ 14 ]. This concern is particularly true in cases such as the French excellent boarding school program, which is designed to provide elite education for disadvantaged groups. In contrast, boarding schools in rural China aim to integrate educational resources and are more likely to be chosen because of the distance between the student's home and school [ 26 , 27 , 52 ]. Therefore, reverse causality may not be a problem in this study. Second, omitted variables may also pose a problem, given that factors that affect students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities may exist at multiple levels, and crucial indicators such as genetic factors and parental emotional involvement may be difficult to measure [ 27 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].

To address these problems, we use the standard instrumental variables (IV) approach to identify an exogenous source of variation in one's boarding status. The proportion of boarders of all students in a particular school is used as an instrumental variable for boarding. This strategy is based on the assumption that the proportion of boarders is a strong predictor of one's boarding status, because a higher proportion of boarders within a school indicates a higher likelihood for students to become boarders in that school. We employ a two-stage least squares (2SLS) framework to estimate Eq. (1) and the following first-stage equation.

The first-stage equation:

The second stage equation:

where \(Boardin{g}_{jis}\) is the proportion of boarders. The definitions of other variables are the same as in Eq. (1).

Distribution of cognitive abilities and non-cognitive abilities

Figure  1 shows the distribution of WISC-IV scores in our sample. The density distribution of WISC-IV scores is right-skewed for both boarding and non-boarding students compared to the norm, indicating a relatively high proportion of students with cognitive delays in our sample. Boarding students exhibit a less right-skewed distribution of WISC-IV scores compared to non-boarding students, suggesting that boarding students have higher WISC-IV scores on average. Fig.  2 shows the density distribution of Raven's IQ scores for the sample students. The estimated IQ scores on Raven's test for both boarding and non-boarding samples are not significantly different from the norm. Moreover, there is no significant difference between the Raven's IQ scores of boarding and non-boarding students. Finally, Fig.  3 illustrates the density distribution of standardized math scores for the sample students, suggesting that there is no significant difference between the boarding and non-boarding students.

Distribution of WISC IQ scores for sample students and a healthy population. The WISC IQ scores density distribution in the healthy population is a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15

Distribution of Raven’s IQ scores for sample students and a healthy population. The Raven’s IQ scores density distribution in the healthy population is a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15

Distribution of standardized math scores for sample students. Math scores are standardized

Table 3 presents the differences in cognitive and non-cognitive abilities between boarding and non-boarding students. The results indicate that boarders' WISC-IV scores were 2.45 points higher than non-boarders, significant at the 5% level, and boarders' fluid intelligence scores were 0.363 points higher than non-boarder, similarly significant at the 5% level. Boarders also scored higher on the matrix reasoning scale by 0.82 points at the 1% significance level. Additionally, boarders' standardized math scores were statistically significantly higher than non-boarders. In terms of non-cognitive skills, boarders scored higher in extraversion by 0.042, but lower in agreeableness by 0.042 compared to non-boarders.

Table 4 verifies the representativeness of the WISC-IV-tested students in the sample. We examine the differences in student characteristics between those who took the test and those who did not. The results indicate no significant differences in individual characteristics, family characteristics, and baseline math scores between the two groups.

Impact of boarding on cognitive abilities

Table 5 presents an analysis of the impact of boarding on cognitive abilities among rural students, specifically focusing on WISC IQ scores, fluid intelligence, and crystal intelligence. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates in columns 1, 3, and 5, the results show that boarding does not have a significant effect on students' cognitive abilities. To further examine the causal relationship between boarding and cognitive abilities, two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates are presented in columns 2, 4, and 6, and the findings indicate that boarding has no significant impact on WISC IQ scores, fluid intelligence, and crystal intelligence. The first stage regression has a high F-statistic of 41.284, indicating the exclusion of weak instrumental variables. To better understand how boarding affects students' cognitive abilities, we also estimated the impacts of boarding on the four subdimensions of WISC IQ scores, which are similarities, digit span, coding, and matrix reasoning. The results presented in Table 6 . The 2SLS estimates for boarding on students’ scores in digit span has a parameter estimate of 2.024, significant at the 5% level. Since scores in digit span is a test of attention and memory, the result highlights the positive impact of boarding on students' performance in this particular cognitive dimension.

Impact of boarding on students' non-cognitive abilities

Table 7 presents the effects of boarding on the personality traits of rural students, encompassing extraversion, agreeableness, dutifulness, neuroticism, and openness. The OLS results in columns (1), (3), (5), (7), and (9) suggest that while there is a positive relationship between boarding and the extraversion of rural students, the IV results indicate that boarding does not have a statistically significant effect on any of the five personality traits examined. Therefore, we conclude that boarding does not have any significant effects on the non-cognitive abilities of rural students.

Robustness test

To enhance the robustness of the research findings, we conducted additional regression analyses. First, we added the bootstrap method to the original instrumental variables method to re-estimate the impact of boarding on students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. The bootstrap method involves treating the observed sample as the entire population, and repeatedly resampling with replacement from the original sample to estimate the sampling distribution. This approach can provide an estimate of the distribution without introducing bias. In this paper, we conducted 1000 bootstrap samples and then used the instrumental variables method for estimation, which can provide more robust standard errors. Tables 8 and 9 show the results, which indicate that boarding still has a significant positive effect at the 10% level on students' scores in digit span and no significant effect on students' non-cognitive abilities, which is consistent with the results above.

Second, we performed robustness tests using Raven's IQ, standardized math, and grit scores as additional measures of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. Raven's IQ and standardized math scores are measures of fluid and crystal intelligence, respectively. The results in Table 10 suggest that boarding does not have a significant effect on students' Raven's IQ and standardized math scores, which are consistent with previous findings. Grit is closely related to conscientiousness in the Big Five personality traits, and although the two are not identical, they share strong similarities such as diligence and perseverance [ 56 ]. It has also been shown that grit is a more refined measure of conscientiousness [ 57 , 58 ]. However, columns (5) and (6) of Table 10 show that boarding does not have a significant effect on students' grit scores, which are consistent with the previous results.

Heterogeneity analysis

In addition to analyzing the effects of boarding, we investigate the heterogeneity of these effects along three dimensions: gender, whether the student is a left-behind child, and family asset status. Family asset status is defined by ranking students' family asset indices from smallest to largest, and students in the top 25% of the sample are classified as having bad family conditions, with a dummy variable indicating whether a student's family conditions are bad. Table 11 presents the results of the heterogeneity analysis for cognitive abilities. The estimates in Panels A and B show that boarding has a significant positive effect on boys' WISC IQ scores, particularly in fluid intelligence, as evidenced by improvements in digit span and matrix reasoning. These findings suggest that boarding enhances boys' memory, attention, and reasoning abilities. Panels C and D indicate that boarding also has a significant positive impact on left-behind children's WISC IQ scores, again largely reflected in fluid intelligence. Boarding increases the digit span score (memory and attention) of left-behind children by 2.952 points (p < 0.05). However, the coding score for non-left-behind children is negatively affected, indicating that boarding reduces their transcription speed, accuracy, general learning ability, and anti-distraction ability. Panels E and F demonstrate that boarding has a significant positive effect at the 5% level on the digit span scores (memory and attention) of students with good family conditions, while there is no significant effect on students' cognitive abilities from low-income families.

The heterogeneity analysis of non-cognitive abilities is presented in Table 12 . Panels A and B show gender differences in the effect of boarding on students' non-cognitive abilities. Specifically, there is a significant positive effect of boarding on girls' conscientiousness at the 10% statistical level, indicating that boarding enhances girls' abilities in areas such as responsibility, workability, and self-control. However, no significant differences were found in the effect of boarding on non-cognitive abilities in other aspects. These findings suggest that boarding schools have varying effects on different dimensions of students' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, highlighting the importance of considering heterogeneity in understanding the overall impact of boarding school education.

Conclusion and discussion

This study examines the impact of boarding on the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of 5,660 junior high school students from 160 schools in rural northwest China using an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Our findings suggest that boarding has a significant positive effect on the digit span scores of junior high school students, which is a key component of the Working Memory Index in WISC, and suggests that boarding improves students’ memory and attention. However, we did not find any significant effects on other aspects of cognitive ability, such as logical thinking, reasoning, and transcription speed and accuracy. Additionally, we found no effects on non-cognitive abilities. To ensure the robustness of our findings, we conducted bootstrap and alternative variable tests, which supported our main results.

We used comprehensive indicators of cognitive abilities, namely crystal and fluid intelligence, to investigate the impact of boarding on rural students' cognitive abilities. Our analysis shows that boarding has a significant impact only on the ability of students to perform digit-span tasks, which is an important component of the Working Memory Index in the WISC. This finding suggests that boarding can positively affect students' memory and attention skills. One possible explanation for this result is that intensive and continuous learning or training can enhance an individual's cognitive abilities [ 59 , 60 , 61 ]. Moreover, boarders have a more collaborative learning and living environment in comparison to commuters, and they spend more time on general studies and homework [ 29 ]. Thus, boarding can significantly improve students' cognitive abilities. Furthermore, previous research has shown that the breadth of children's working memory increases linearly between the ages of 4 and 15 [ 62 ]. As boarders spend more time at school than commuters, they may have more opportunities to exercise their cognitive abilities, particularly in the area of attention and memory. Therefore, the positive effect of boarding on their cognitive abilities is likely to be reflected in their performance on digit span tasks. Most previous studies on the relationship between boarding and students' cognitive ability have often used academic performance (such as grades in math, language, and reading) as a proxy variable for cognitive ability. The conclusions drawn from these studies have been mixed. For instance, some studies suggest a positive effect of boarding on students' math performance in elementary school [ 19 , 23 ], while others demonstrate a significant negative influence on reading scores [ 26 , 28 ]. On the other hand, boarding has been linked to a positive effect on math and language scores among junior high school students [ 29 , 63 ]. Nonetheless, academic performance merely measures a certain dimension of students' cognitive ability, often reflecting crystallized intelligence and not offering a comprehensive evaluation of cognitive ability. From this perspective, this study employs the Wechsler test to more precisely gauge the impact of boarding on students' cognitive ability. In the existing literature, China Education Tracking Survey (CEPS) data is the only source that gauged students' cognitive ability through a unified scale (but not the Wechsler and Raven tests utilized in this study). Their findings indicated that boarding does not significantly impact students' cognitive abilities [ 63 ], which broadly aligns with the results of our study.

Moreover, regarding boarding and noncognitive ability, the current literature has primarily focused on mental health indicators as measures of noncognitive ability (e.g., depression, bullying, etc.). For instance, studies have pointed to potential psychological risks associated with boarding for students [ 27 , 28 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. However, the Big Five personality traits measurement is an internationally recognized and widely employed tool for non-cognitive abilities. Notably, there is a scarcity of literature investigates the impact of boarding on students' non-cognitive skills within the framework of these five dimensions.

We conducted further analysis on the heterogeneity of the effects of boarding on the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of rural junior high school students by gender, stay-at-home status, and family conditions. Our results indicate that the effect of boarding on the cognitive abilities of boys is greater than that of girls, particularly in fluid intelligence, as measured by digit span and matrix reasoning scales that show improved memory, attention, and reasoning abilities. This could be due to differences in time management skills between boys and girls, with boys benefitting from the external discipline and communal learning atmosphere in boarding schools [ 67 ]. For left-behind students, boarding has a greater impact on their cognitive abilities, particularly in the areas of memory and attention, as they lack parental engagement and receive more support from teachers [ 13 ]. Additionally, boarding can have a positive impact on the cognitive abilities of students from better-off families due to improved nutritional intake in school, which is associated with better cognitive development [ 68 ]. Existing research often uses academic performance as a proxy for cognitive abilities, which may not accurately capture the full range of cognitive skills. Furthermore, the positive effects of boarding on non-cognitive abilities were not observed in our study, suggesting the need for further investigation into the impact of boarding on non-cognitive development.

Our analysis of the heterogeneous effects of boarding on students' cognitive abilities also extends to their non-cognitive abilities. We find that boarding has a more significant impact on girls' conscientiousness of the Big Five personality traits, which is consistent with previous research on gender differences in conscientiousness [ 69 ]. This may be attributed to female personality traits and the role of gender as a moderating variable affecting individual commitment [ 70 ]. Social role theory also suggests that individuals of different genders develop different senses of group identity, causing them to behave differently in different social situations [ 71 ]. Therefore, greater commitment by girls to group characteristics may explain why they are more likely to be influenced by the communal learning atmosphere and external discipline that boarding schools provide. Interestingly, we did not find a significant effect of boarding on non-cognitive abilities among left-behind children or those from different family backgrounds. This finding supports our main estimation results and suggests that boarding may not have a substantial impact on the non-cognitive abilities of rural middle school students. Furthermore, we ruled out the possibility of positive and negative effects of boarding in different subsamples cancelling each other out, which strengthens this conclusion.

In conclusion, our study provides evidence that boarding schools is not detrimental to the development of new human capital, including cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, among rural junior high school students. Moreover, boarding positively affects some dimensions of students' cognitive abilities, particularly in the areas of memory and attention, and has a greater effect on certain subgroups such as boys, left-behind children, and students from better-off families. The growing prevalence of boarding schools in rural areas underscores the need to explore ways to further enhance students' cognitive skills and foster the development of non-cognitive or socio-emotional abilities in their daily boarding life. This issue deserves ongoing attention and efforts from educators and policymakers.

We do acknowledge one limitation of this study. While our analysis and findings indicate that boarding has not significantly impacted the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of rural junior high school students, it remains possible that potential adverse effects are still present. It’s worth noting that the cognitive and non-cognitive skills evaluated in this paper using measurement scales may not fully encompass the nuances of various students’ behaviors tied to boarding. For instance, aspects like the dynamics between boarders and roommates, as well as the prolonged separation of boarders from parents, could potentially exert negative influences on their non-cognitive abilities, including interpersonal skills and emotional well-being [ 20 , 21 , 63 , 72 ]. This points to both the limitation of our current study and the necessity for further research.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Availability of methods

All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

WISC-IV is a clinical instrument created by David Wechsler in the United States. It is utilized to individually evaluate the intelligence of children between the aged 6 and 16 years and is internationally recognized as one of the most authoritative and valid personal intelligence tests. It was published in 1949 and updated to the fourth edition (WISC-IV) in 2003. In 2007, Prof. Houcan Zhang of the School of Psychology at Beijing Normal University, introduced the fourth edition to China. Leveraging Chinese census data, 1100 people were proportionally sampled from 12 provinces in mainland China, with 100 people in each age group, to establish the Chinese version of the norm (with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15). Resulting in a calculated mean of 88.258 and a standard deviation of 10.948 for the students in our study’s samples. The average reliability coefficients of each synthetic score of the scale ranged from 0.87 to 0.97, meeting the standards set by the original American version. For this paper, the results of the Wechsler test were adjusted according to the Chinese norm [ 38 ].

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Acknowledgements

We thank the researchers from Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University for help on developing the study protocol and training the enumerators. We are also grateful to all respondents who participated in this study and the enumerators for data collection efforts.

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.72103114], National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.71933003; Grant No.72373085], and 111 Project [Grant No. B16031].

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FC and YNH contributed to the study design, data analysis and manuscript draft. BT gave critical feedback and conducted quality control. SYZ and HZ revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Chang, F., Huo, Y., Zhang, S. et al. The impact of boarding schools on the development of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities in adolescents. BMC Public Health 23 , 1852 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16748-8

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An Identity Process Theory Account of the Impact of Boarding School on Sense of Self and Mental Health: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

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Boarding schools exist to provide education for children, but this involves the child leaving the family home and residing in an educational institution. Identity Process Theory suggests that such a change in circumstances can threaten the child’s identity, which triggers coping strategies and impacts on the individual’s self-concept during both childhood and adulthood. This study undertook an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with five adults who boarded as children. The focus was on exploring participants’ beliefs in terms of how the boarding experience affected their sense of self. Emerging themes relate to the (i) coping strategies used by participants during childhood, such as amnesia, compartmentalising, compliance and acceptance, and (ii) long-term effects of boarding on identity, self-concept and intimate relationships. Findings also highlight the interplay of factors such as privilege and social class, which were reported as motives for participants’ parents choosing boarding for their children. The study raises important questions about the long-term health impacts of sending children away to board.

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Boarding has existed in the UK for centuries and involves a child entering an educational residential institution, or boarding school, for most or all of their childhood (Walford 1986 ). There has been a decline in boarding school attendance in the UK: in 1998, 1% of UK school age children attended boarding school (Department for Health 1998 ), but this figure had reduced to 0.5% by 2017 (Independent Schools Council 2017 ). Parents’ reasons for sending their children to boarding school vary but amongst upper social classes, which reflect the social class amongst whom boarding is most commonly associated, wanting the child to learn how to assimilate or acculturate into the social class to which they were born appears to be an important motivating factor (Howard 2007 ; Walford 1986 ). Not all children at boarding school are from the upper classes, as many aspirational parents wish their children to benefit from a private education. Nevertheless, regardless of social class, boarding school invariably results in a change from a home to an institutional living environment, without the familiar faces and routines of family members (Schaverian 2015 ).

The term ‘boarding school syndrome’ (Schaverian 2015 ) has been used to refer to the psychological and emotional difficulties that some children exhibit as a result of attending boarding school, which are asserted to be long-lasting and detrimental to the identity of the individual in both childhood and adulthood. In addition to mental health problems, such children are understood to be at risk for developing a strategic survival personality as a means of coping in the absence of relational attachment (Duffell 2000 ). This is consistent with studies demonstrating a positive association between schizophrenia and parent-child separation during childhood (Paksarian et al. 2015 ), increased rates of self-harm in people separated from either one or both parents before the age of fifteen (Astrup et al. 2017 ) and greater psychiatric symptoms in young people due to parental separation versus parental death (Canetti et al. 2000 ). Similarly, studies of indigenous people in Canada who were removed from their families and placed in boarding schools as children report high rates of mental health issues and substance use (Evans-Campbell et al. 2012 ).

According to Identity Process Theory (IPT; Breakwell 1986 ), this change can threaten the child’s nascent identity and trigger permanent changes to their self-concept. Self-concept in this respect can be understood by two different but arguably complementary paradigms: Social Identity Theory (Tajfel 1979 ) and Dramaturgical Self (Goffman 1959 ). Social Identify Theory proposes that a sense of social identity and belonging is derived not only from the groups to which people belong but, also from the groups to which they do not belong (Tajfel 1979 ). This has important implications when considering children in boarding school, whom without the close proximity of parental figures to intervene and guide their choices, can experience emotional and identity challenges due to the significant (and often sudden) transition occurring during the childhood developmental period.

The Dramaturgical Self paradigm reflects a different perspective on self-concept and maintains that individuals adopt roles when around other people and that identity is largely ‘performed’ (Goffman 1959 ). This includes the notion of ‘front’ and ‘back’ regions, by which an individual presents a different, socially acceptable face to the social world, whilst relaxing their behaviour when alone (Elliott 2001 ). Goffman’s theory ( 1959 ) provides a useful adjunct to Social Identity Theory in the context of boarding, as it acknowledges that a sense of agency may inform or regulate a child’s changes to self-concept, whilst accommodating the idea of social interaction as a type of performance.

According to the aforementioned IPT, identity is made up of two dimensions: content and value, and the identity of an individual depends on the extent to which four principles remain stable: continuity, distinctiveness, self-esteem and efficacy (Breakwell 1986 ). Sending a child to boarding school has the potential to affect all four of these guiding principles: because (a) by removing the child from the family home and local school, the ‘continuity’ of their social identity is ruptured and the child is deprived of former social roles; (b) within the new educational institution, the child is no longer unique and loses the ‘distinction’ of being known and loved by family and peers; (c) perceived abandonment may lead to a loss of ‘self-esteem’ as the child comes to terms with these fundamentally altered circumstances and (d) ‘efficacy’ is arguably undermined in an institution, with its reliance on a tightly controlled routine that allows for little choice for the individuals within (Goffman 1961 ). According to IPT, such destabilisation of the four guiding principles is likely to trigger an attempt at coping with the threat, followed by an enforced change of identity as children adapt to the new social roles expected of them.

A small number of empirical studies (e.g. Evans-Campbell et al. 2012 ; Partridge 2012 ) have sought to directly investigate the potential negative effects of boarding school on well-being and psychosocial functioning. However, none of these studies have specifically explored the lived experiences of ex-boarders in terms of the long-term effects on their sense of self and identity. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the role played by boarding school in identity formation based on the experiences of adults who attended boarding schools in childhood. In particular, the focus was on capturing the lived experience of the participant, including the perceived effects on identity processes over time. In the present study, IPT (Breakwell 1986 ) was used as a framework to explore the extent to which participants’ experiences aligned with an established theory on identity development processes.

Methodology

Although there are some studies into the psychological effects of boarding school (Duffell 2000 ; Duffell and Bassett 2016 ; Partridge 2012 ; Schaverian 2011 ), research into this area is minimal. Such prior research has largely been intervention-based or auto-ethnological, predominantly qualitative and sometimes anecdotal. However, when studying areas of research that are not easy to quantify, such as the perception of self-concept, a qualitative methodology is deemed to be particularly suitable as it allows for in-depth and detailed data analysis but also for the emergence of unexpected findings (Barker et al. 2002 ).

Therefore, in the present study, a qualitative design using semi-structured interviews (SSIs) was employed to explore participants’ experiences of identity as a result of their time at boarding school. The SSIs were recorded and then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith et al. 2009 ; Smith and Osborn 2003 ).

Participants

Participants were purposively recruited through an association of people who attended boarding school as children, which made its members aware that the study was taking place. The association is based in the UK and exists to support former boarders and their partners, as well as provide relevant information to people considering boarding for their children. Participants were excluded if (a) they had attended boarding school for less than 2 years, (b) did not board at school, (c) were aged under 18 years and/or (d) disclosed a current diagnosis of mental illness.

The final sample of participants comprised five UK adults who had been to boarding school during their childhood. The mean number of years of attendance at boarding school during childhood was 9.4 and participants mean age at the time of the SSI was 52 (see Table 1 for participant demographic information; alias names have been used to protect participant confidentiality).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted by Skype or telephone call (1 interview was conducted by Skype and the rest by telephone). All interviews were recorded and then transcribed on a verbatim basis. Examples of questions included in the SSI are (a) What recollections do you have of life before boarding school? (b) Do you recollect your first school? (c) Can you talk about the impact of being away from home on your relationships – then and now? (d) Can you talk about the experience of family life from a distance and how this has shaped current family relations? and (e) Can you describe the impact of boarding school on your identity/sense of self? Ethical approval for the study was provided by the researchers’ academic institution based in the East-Midlands of the UK. All participants provided informed consent and participants did not receive any financial incentive for enrolling in the study.

Data Analysis

IPA is a qualitative method that is founded in a double-hermeneutical approach, as the researcher is exploring the meaning-making of the participant, who is trying to make sense of their own experience (Pietkiewicz and Smith 2012 ). IPA, which seeks to gain insight into the lived experience of participants, is not only interpretive but also phenomenological and social constructionist as it takes account of the context of the experience. Whilst IPA focusses on the meaning-making of the participants without theoretical framing, it can provide an accessible approach to phenomenological research which allows for a complete and detailed account from the individual’s frame of reference (Coyle and Turner 2000 ). The interpretivist epistemology, social constructionist paradigm and the relativist ontology of IPA facilitate participants providing interpretations of their own identities as they see them, within the social context of their childhood experiences at boarding school.

IPA prescribes the need to analyse each interview individually (Smith et al. 2009 ) in order to gain insight into each participant’s ‘life world’. Therefore, the interview recordings were listened to at least twice, and each transcript was read multiple times. In one margin of each transcript, annotations were made of initial ideas relating to meaningful content. Codes were then formulated which corresponded to similar types of responses or patterns of meaning. Groups of codes were then used to form emergent themes which were noted in the right-hand margin of the transcript. The process of code and theme identification was repeated iteratively as a means of refining for relevance and accuracy. Master and subordinate themes were then identified (see Table 2 ).

Validity and Reliability

In order to increase rigour and transparency, the present qualitative study followed Yardley’s ( 2011 ) core principles for evaluating the validity of qualitative research: sensitivity to context, commitment and rigour, coherence and transparency, and impact and importance. This involved careful consideration at the interview stage, to ensure researcher bias did not unduly influence the participants’ responses. Furthermore, a copy of the final thematic structure was sent to participants for comments (all participants were happy with the thematic structure and there were no requests for changes). Findings were also discussed amongst the research team for the purposes of objectivity and to ensure participants’ responses were accurately conveyed and interpreted.

The data analysis results in four master themes, each with different numbers of sub-themes. The master- and sub-themes are shown in Table 2 and discussed further below.

Master Theme 1: Initial Experience of Being Left at School

This master theme reflects the experience that all participants had relating to being left at boarding school as a child. Attending boarding school ordinarily involves leaving home, the family, friends and joining a group of unknown individuals in an institution which typically operates using a structured timetable. This is likely to affect all four identity principles of IPT (Breakwell 1986 ), with the potential to reflect an acute threat to the child’s identity. Indeed, responses by participants indicate a sense of the emotionally overwhelming nature of this life-changing experience.

Margaret supports this sentiment directly and conveys feeling a sense of abandonment:

I think it’s a sort of dread….that’s the, you know, that’s actually home sickness or what’s would call, a sort of deep grief. ….I think a sense of confusion … sort of not kind of knowing what was happening to me but there’s nothing had been explained. (Margaret)

In discussing this threat, Simon appears to have difficulty in finding suitable words to capture the emotional impact he experienced. For example, he uses the qualifier ‘very’ twice and then contrasts it with the joy he felt at being reunited with his family, which could be indicative of how difficult he finds it to reflect on the negative memories that he harbours.

Yeah I was very very upset, I’ve never been so upset since, apart from maybe possibly, the first time I came out I cried with happiness, that’s not something that has happened since. (Simon)

This image of a child who is upset initially is restated again by Simon, along with further information from the adult perspective about the process of switching off emotions as a child at boarding school:

You are totally shutting down emotions that are quite normal to have, so I remember crying a lot the first night and probably the next day a little bit as well. (Simon)

A sense of loss was also reported by Peter:

Well, you lose everything and you start again. (Peter)

Master Theme 2: Coping Strategies

Master theme 2 captures the memories that participants have in terms of the coping stages they experienced as part of coming to terms with the boarding school environment. IPT asserts that the individual facing a threat to the directing principles of their identity will apply intra-psychic, interpersonal or intergroup coping strategies to try to expunge the threat (Breakwell 1986 ). In the case of the boarding school child, the threat of being left at school is transient as it becomes the normal way of being. Therefore, when faced with the initial threat the boarding school child may try to make use of the most basic coping strategies, the ‘intra-psychic’ choice, but when this fails, they may move on to more cognitively advanced ‘intra-personal’ or ‘intra-group’ coping strategies.

Sub-theme 2.1: Intra-psychic Coping Strategies

Sub-theme 2.1.1: dissociation and denial.

Tim recounted a sense of confusion upon arriving at boarding school, and he contradicts his initial response that he has no memory, by describing a memory:

I don’t remember them saying goodbye. I think I tried to look for them or something like that. I’m not even sure if that’s the real memory or not but I do remember sort of the moment of them leaving or realizing that they had left and then feeling quite scared or sad but I don’t, I don’t recall that detail. (Tim)

Peter reinforces the emotional impact of his experience by describing a dissociative process:

Of that first time at school and the threshold moment - I have no memory…. So, I suspect that it was just too overwhelming for me to deal with at the time. (Peter)

Sarah refers directly to her lack of a sense-of-self at that time, by recognising that at such a young age, she did not have the language to make sense of her experiences. Her repetition of the word ‘think’ could be seen as a compensatory cognitive defence against feelings. This is supported by the recognition that she does not cry to this day, as she believes it to be ineffectual:

I have no real recollection of a destruction of identity, I mean there’s no real self there. You have to think… At four, it was more feelings without the language to make sense of it. Like I think, I suppose I felt homesick, I think it was like being taken into care. (Sarah)

In terms of the assimilation and accommodation of the threat posed by attending boarding school, for some participants, there appeared to be a level of cutting off, which Breakwell ( 1986 ) refers to as denial. This type of deflection is a well-documented short-term response to threat, which Simon contextualised as follows:

That is a trauma that is going to make you stop feeling emotions after doing that, because initially you are a normal kid having a normal reaction to adversity, feeling betrayed and let down by your parents. (Simon)

Sub-theme 2.1.2: Compartmentalism or the Split Self

Breakwell ( 1986 ) describes a coping strategy that involves assimilation without accommodation or evaluation, by which an individual takes on the new identity but keeps it completely separate from the existing self. The literature on boarding school children echoes this, describing a split in the psyche, which leads to an ‘encapsulated self’ (Schaverian 2015 ), with the home identity and school identity kept compartmentalised. Margaret explained this as follows:

I think when I was sort of 13 or 14 I put enormous amount of weight and I was 14 when I was 14. So, I wasn’t attractive to young men and when I got home, I think it was so disconnected, home life and school life but I didn’t really have relationships. (Margaret)

Peter contextualises the split identity as being between his ‘conforming’ and ‘rebel’ self:

I was very split if you like between the conforming and the rebel. And they were very separate identities. (Peter)

For Sarah, the split felt like two completely separate existences:

I didn’t think about school when I was at home at all. It was like it didn’t exist. My brother and I just had fun playing in Majorca, out on the boats. I didn’t used to feel bad the day we left for school but the day before, when we were packing I hated it. And at school, home didn’t exist. (Sarah)

This compartmentalising approach to life appeared to stay with Sarah into adulthood, which she articulated as follows:

I compartmentalise very easily. I moved as an adult back to Jersey… I had my own place, and then I visited friends later…it’s like I can be in one place and not think at all about home… I find it very… too easy to compartmentalise. It’s sort of like I have different compartments of people. (Sarah)

Margaret’s experience in this context was very similar to Sarah:

the other place is going to be better but because home wasn’t really happy that you sort of longed to be back at school with your friends and then at school and unhappy, so, you long to be home …… we’ve got a lovely home and we do entertain people but I would much rather be away from home. (Margaret)

As a coping strategy, compartmentalism can be temporarily effective but IPT (Breakwell 1986 ) asserts that it is not ideal, as it leads to identity stagnation and is not a permanent solution; the point at which the psychic boundary can no longer hold will lead to enforced accommodation or a different coping strategy.

Sub-theme 2.1.3: Acceptance

Participants described a form of resigned acceptance of boarding school, which according to IPT, manifests when other tactics fail on account of an overwhelming threat to distinctiveness, continuity and self-esteem. Breakwell ( 1986 ) asserts that this is not capitulation to the threat but a form of creative adaptation in order to compromise. This is consistent with how Tim reported his internalisation of the experience:

I think I was the same kind of going back and forth between school and home but that kind of mode of being whatever it is has been quite withdrawn and sort of getting on with things by yourself and sort of dealing with your own problems. (Tim)

A similar stoic acceptance appears to be present in the following extract from Margaret:

It was more that you, you know, whatever happened, you get on with it. (Margaret)

And, a lack of self-efficacy appeared to be present in language used by Peter:

So, I have to cope because I’ve got no choice. (Peter)

Tim also made reference to strategies used by others to help facilitate his acceptance of the change:

I remember it was, yeah, sort of framed in sort of being adult and being grown up, I remember sort of felt like, kind of important for sure, I remember being framed in terms of being sent away to school to become knights or something – just sort of cope with everything by yourself. (Tim)

Studies into the long-term effects of childhood trauma identify alterations in identity as a core feature (Knefel et al. 2015 ). This includes issues with maintaining a coherent sense of self, including dissociative symptoms such as amnesia and depersonalisation (e.g. Van Dijke and Ford 2015 ; Van Dijke et al. 2018 ). These dissociative tendencies have been identified in previous research on school boarders and are typically construed as a survival mechanism for coping with the immense loss of primary attachment (Duffell and Bassett 2016 ).

Sub-theme 2.2: Interpersonal Coping Strategies

Boarding School is an environment that invariably demands enforced socialisation, as the students within must share space with their peers, including sleeping in dormitories with other students. In this sense, boarding schools are akin to the total institution of Goffman’s ( 1961 ) treatise, in which he describes the myriad damaging effects of forced intimacy and desegregation on the individual. According to IPT (Breakwell 1986 ), this corresponds to the interpersonal coping strategies of isolation, passing, negativism and compliance. Goffman ( 1959 ) described this as playing the role and asserts that it serves to turn the child into the ‘boarding school’ child.

Sub-theme 2.2.1: Compliance or Obedience

Compliance is sometimes used as the first choice of interpersonal coping strategy and is associated with feeling powerless when subjected to threat (Breakwell 1986 ). Whether this fundamentally alters identity structure depends on how cynically the individual adopts the demanded identity; certainly, social approval through compliance is more likely to lead to permanent changes. However, within this is a double-bind situation: non-compliance leads to anxiety, whilst compliance affects the principles of self-esteem, distinctiveness and continuity.

For Simon, the way to survive the experience appeared to be by obeying the rules at the expense of these principles, although he cannot explain his childhood thought processes as an adult:

I will try to curry favour with authority, to stay out of trouble. That was the way to survive as far as I was concerned. Don’t know why staying out of trouble has anything to do with trying to be happy, but it was. (Simon)

For Peter, his identity was both tied to the hierarchical nature of the school and adaptable to his circumstances.

I just thought I had a problem with authority and authority figures. So, I would be very conforming and very intimidated by them. (Peter)

Sub-theme 2.3: Intergroup Coping Strategies

The last of the three IPT coping strategy approaches refers to group memberships. According to Breakwell ( 1986 ), other ways to manage threats to identity involve looking to one’s in-group for support and action or alternatively having multiple group memberships. When children are removed from the family, they invariably lose their most significant in-group and must seek out a replacement in-group as a perceived matter of survival (Waldfogel 2006 ). Both within the institution, and amongst children, group dynamics are rudimentary and this is reflected in the following participant accounts:

Sub-theme 2.3.1: Rebellion

Group support can help those who are facing threat to identity, as it prevents isolation and allows for information sharing and consciousness raising (Breakwell 1986 ). In an environment of permanent socialisation, finding a group of individuals can be a considerable resource, not only as a means of protection but also due to engaging in group action. According to participants of this study, group action typically assumed the form of acts of rebellion as a means of providing a small sense of power over the situation. The advantages of this to the threatened individual are clear; the rebellion provides increased self-efficacy which, in turn, increases self-esteem.

For Tim, this behaviour was part of the norm for his group, although as an adult, his attempt to define it leads him to use the term ‘mild delinquency’:

I was kind of a rebel in terms of, definitely the second school as well, so, in my group of friends who used to be things like sort of smoke cigarettes and later on drinking and sort of very occasionally take drugs and so it’s around that kind of, I don’t know, mild delinquency sounds harsh. It’s a strange term to use but being like, sort of slightly rebellious. (Tim)

For other participants, group belonging resulted in some challenges, as the desire to conform to the group sometimes undermined the need to comply with school rules:

I really, really hated it in case we were found out. So, I was following, you know, to an extent because I didn’t want to be thought to be as a sort of weedy one or pathetic one. (Margaret)

Sub-theme 2.3.2: Cruelty

For children attending boarding school, besides the lack of close family members to take care of them, they invariably must live in an artificially constructed society that involves being permanently surrounded by peers. Not only can this impact the natural development of identity but the fact that such children lack the moderating and mediating effects of traditional caring attachment figures could lead to increased levels of bullying (Smokowski and Kopasz 2005 ). In the present study, memories of peers were largely negative, with participants referring to a clear hierarchy and an overall sense of needing to stay on the right side of the bullies.

According to Margaret, the bullying often involved silent treatment but sometimes extended to physical violence which left her silently fearful:

I remember she had her whip in the dormitory and she used to whip people and and I’m absolutely trembling with this girl and everybody sort of knew what she’s like but then you didn’t – nobody would dare say to anybody, no idea that you would complain about anything because you learn very quickly that you just sort of get on with it and that was, you know, part of life. (Margaret)

Tim described the inexorable pervasiveness of the bullying experience:

It was sort of a kind of collective verbal bullying of, you know, sort of a particular people and it’s sort of just words…. It was quite public … being in a boarding school, you know, it’s sort of around the clock and there’s no escape from it. (Tim)

Sarah reported feeling near the bottom of the hierarchy of power amongst her school peers:

My memories of school in the UK were of groups of girls and awareness of my place within it… I often felt intimidated by girls and well… I was very aware of the power dynamics within that. I mean, I wasn’t one of the top dogs, I was pond life and I knew it. (Sarah)

For Simon, friendships were forged out of fear:

Spontaneity was lost. I had friendships, I made friendships based on fear, I’m still quite fearful of my friends from boarding school … scared of my compatriots, my contemporaries as much as older people. Maybe consciously, people are either school bullies or schoolteachers to be placated or be wary of. No basis for constructive friendship. (Simon)

Master Theme 3: Limits to Coping

Sub-theme 3.1: at school.

A person can use forgetting as a tool to cut links with the past (Breakwell 1986 , p.177), which disposes of the identity threat. The fact that many of the participants in the present study report that they cannot remember much of their childhood could imply undertones of psychogenic amnesia, which is often a result of trauma (Freyd 1994 ).

In this regard, Peter’s memory is very sporadic, although there is a contrast between the first recollection of a ‘complete blank’, and then the qualifying statement, of ‘instances’ and ‘scant memories’:

It’s just complete blank. I’ve got memories of instances at boarding school, of various things that happened with people, in groups, some play and sports or whatever. But I have very scant memories of the whole experience. (Peter)

Sarah recognises the cause of her amnesia on being left at the school:

I basically, well, I think it was the trauma that stopped me remembering. (Sarah)

However, she goes on to explain that this was chronic and that the amnesia continued throughout her time at school:

I don’t have many memories of the school. It’s funny I don’t remember much of school or anything. (Sarah)

Sub-theme 3.2: On Leaving School

For some participants, the coping mechanisms utilised whilst at school affected their transition to the world outside following completion of their time at school. For example, Simon explained that life at university overwhelmed his coping strategies:

I didn’t cope. I lost lots of nights’ sleep, I lost a lot of friends … I wasn’t coping. I got a 2:1 and I don’t know how … not being able to sleep for weeks on end, feeling quite left out, not having sexual relationships, being far too scared to do that. Going red in the face around people, generally being unhappy. (Simon)

For Peter, the experience of not coping did not happen immediately on leaving school, as he found different coping strategies through joining a company and marrying a dominant woman.

And I went through very interesting phase in my 40s. I went through a car crash divorce and I lost and everything else, lost everything and had to start myself over again …..I mean, part of the reason why marriage broke down was because I didn’t know who I was before so I became the good son, the good husband, the good father. (Peter)

Sub-theme 3.3: Lost Adolescence

An element of their identity change is described by some of the participants as a lost adolescence. For Simon, there is a sense that he had to be sent away to learn how to be like his family:

If I stayed in the family, I’d have been quite a different animal that the rest of my family, they would have had to deal with an actual teenager. (Simon)

This is revisited later, when Simon reflects upon his experience of adolescence as the ‘good boy’, when he had no opportunity to be authentic:

I’m sure adolescence isn’t particularly easy even if you are at a day school but I’ll never know because when I was an adolescent I just carried on being a good boy and later I got into therapy and in analysing my BS experience, I was furious, I was so angry, and I still am. (Simon)

For Sarah, the identity crisis arising from a lost adolescence resulted in low self-esteem:

I went through a, what I call my sex, drugs and rock n’roll phase – well, it was in my, up to my 20s ... I think that was me going through my teenage years. I suffered very low self-esteem for years – actually, probably until about ten years ago. (Sarah)

Master Theme 4: Fundamental Change or ‘The Making of Me’

This master theme reflects the sense that participants have of themselves as adults, as a result of their time at boarding school. Previous research has detailed that ex-boarders have problems with identity due to the lack of a family in childhood to mirror and accommodate them; instead, the children must adapt to the institution (Schaverian 2011 ).

Sub-theme 4.1: Who Am I?

Margaret summarised the long-term effects of boarding school on identity as follows:

A total loss of identity because it had been really squashed at an early age and that was the boarding school person. I mean that was totally squashed … very difficult to know what ones needs and wants and desires were because, you know, you didn’t have them or you were told not to have them. (Margaret)

This lack of self-knowledge reflects Margaret’s experience of growing up in an environment where the awareness of the perception of others replaced a self-evaluation. This phenomenon is mentioned again by Peter, who recognised his chameleon-like approach in his first marriage:

I can adapt very quickly into other people’s situation. So, in my relationships even when I was married for 16 years but I felt like I was in her life. I didn’t feel it was a shared life … So, we did eventually buy a house. It felt like it was her house. (Peter)

This contrasts somewhat with the transformation Peter has experienced in recent years, when he finally feels that he has a self-concept and self-efficacy:

And I think since I met my second wife … I’ve adapted into who I am. I’ve become an autonomous human being, autonomous adult. (Peter)

Peter draws attention to the catalyst for this, which he experienced as a complete breakdown, and which IPT (Breakwell 1986 ) attributes to the failure of coping strategies:

I mean, I went into a very depressed clinical depression and attempted suicide and then recovered from that. And had to sort of literally say, “I’m starting again, who do I want to be? How do I want to be?” (Peter)

For Sarah, whose boarding school exposure started at the age of four, the perceived impact on her appears to have affected her life choices on an ongoing basis:

I married a man with Asperger’s, so there is no intimacy and that feels…. safe. I honestly think that for Boarding School, for us Boarding School people, that alone is the default position; I get to be independent, self-sufficient…not under surveillance. (Sarah)

Sarah appears to have chosen a life partner with whom she can stay alone and therefore ‘safe’. The implication here is that other people are unsafe, and this is supported in her comment on childcare:

well I find delegating the care for my two boys very hard. I can’t do that. (Sarah)

Not only does Sarah indicate a lack of trust in others here, but there appears to be a reference to, and rejection of, her past in the choice of the words ‘delegating care’.

A further example of a rejection of the boarding school past appears in Simon’s contemplation of his sense of self:

I reject the boarding school upbringing, but I’m still quite lost because I don’t work so I don’t have a work identity. I work as a Yoga teacher but I don’t do it that much, I don’t work for my living. A strong sense of self? No. (Simon)

Sub-theme 4.2: Boarding School Persona as a Social Construction

IPT (Breakwell 1986 ) is unequivocal about the role of social context in relation to the processes of identity. The threat and coping strategies are all dependent on, and limited by, the social milieu into which they are projected. A boarding school is a very particular social matrix, representing as it does the Bourdieusian ‘field’ in which ‘habitus’ is developed and shared amongst the children of the privileged (Bourdieu 1986 ). Parental expectations inherent in this choice of education are reflected in the norms of the school and can ultimately lead to a state of identity foreclosure (Marcia 1980 ). This is consistent with a review of longitudinal research indicating a longitudinal link between parenting and identity (Meeus 2011 ).

For Simon, whilst his education was about teaching him how to be the right class, he juxtaposes this with the contrasting idea of a ‘local’ person. By being sent geographically further away from his family, he learns to be a member of both his family and his social class:

I think it’s down to class really, a class prejudice, because if I weren’t at a Boarding School, I would be a different class to my parents, with local loyalties rather than socially defined ones. I’d be much more of a local guy than if I were not sent away I think ... (Simon)

This is reinforced by the contrast between the prestige and the feelings; the former is all important, to the detriment of the latter:

Sent away to some gilded prestigious place where that mattered – the prestige – the actual feelings of people there are immaterial. (Simon)

The boarding school persona is cynically summed up by a generic type, using glib adjectives such as ‘charming’ and ‘diffident’:

…and you have your charming boarding school personality to rely on – Hugh grant sort of diffident…. Yeah. (Simon)

Margaret uses the word ‘privileged’ to describe the education and goes on to explain how that made her feel a sense of responsibility:

Because you’ve had this privileged education and you know all this stuff that Mr. and Mrs. Average didn’t know, you have somehow told them, let them know – you’re sort of superior and with that goes a huge sense of responsibility. (Margaret)

The words ‘superior’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Average’ suggest that for Margaret, the message she received was that those who do not exist in this elitist setting are inferior. A further long-term effect for Margaret was that this falsely created superior personality with its superficial achievements and accomplishments was only a construct:

I left school early and was this mini adult, I think I lived for, probably about 10 years in that state…I could manage myself, I could take on the world and sort of worked with it. I think it’s very hollow inside. I wouldn’t have the language to say, I didn’t know who I was because what I thought I was the outward appearance which my mother drummed in very successfully and the fact that, you know, social standing, friends I had, we spoke the same language which carried you along. (Margaret)

Tim also uses the word ‘privilege’ in describing his identity but goes on to qualify this by expressing discomfort due to ‘unfairness’:

…it’s that sort of private education and privilege and all of that. It’s something and I, you know, I never really embraced and I felt, I sort of sensed the unfairness and said that sort of difference that it creates was kind of wrong …..it’s something that have a weird relation with and sort of quite frankly embarrassed in some contexts. (Tim)

For Tim, there is a sense that he has had an identity thrust upon him that he did not ask for, but he cannot entirely dispose of. This is also reflected in Simon’s words, in which he sums up his relationship to this unasked for ‘privilege’:

It was ten years of my childhood, I spent two thirds of my life in an institution with all boys, and all my family were educated in the same way, it was the making of me, that was who I was, regardless of how I felt about it and I live the rest of my life trying to come to terms with it. (Simon)

Participants use words such as ‘diffident’, ‘superior’ and ‘charming’ to describe the boarding school persona, but this is juxtaposed with the word ‘hollow’ and the sense that the child has no choice in this situation. This sub-theme also concerns the role of prestige and privilege in this identity production, both as a reason underlying their parents’ choice and as the outcome of experience. IPT describes a fundamental change in identity as the final result of the coping strategies failing in the face of threat to identity, and the outcome of this experience is a change in identity that may not be welcome (Breakwell 1986 ). Within this, there is also a sense of the way in which identity processes contribute to the reproduction of social inequality (Callero 2018 ).

The impact of boarding school on later life identity is relatively under-researched. This qualitative study aimed to advance scientific understanding by exploring the experiences of self and identity change amongst five individuals who attended boarding school as children. Findings highlight the lasting impact of attending boarding school on identity formation as well as on psychological well-being more generally.

In summary, all participants of the present study recounted an experience of losing everything they had ever known as part of becoming an unexceptional member of an institution. This resulted in an experience of reduced self-determination and self-esteem that, in line with IPT, constituted a threat to participants’ identity. The severity of this threat in such young children is uncertain, because as one participant of this study pointed out, at the age of four, there may not yet be a developed identity. Nevertheless, whilst IPT has typically been used to examine threat to an existing identity, it describes the various strategies by which an individual attempts to cope with identity threat, including intra-psychic, interpersonal and intergroup strategies (Breakwell 1986 ). Given that all three coping strategies were described by participants of this study, IPT could be a useful framework for understanding the impact of boarding school on identity formation. The fact that participants’ responses give examples of amnesia, dissociation, denial, compartmentalism and acceptance lend credibility to this.

The literature on childhood trauma asserts that children tend to use very simplistic but effective coping methods, such as dissociation, due to their relative powerlessness (Nash et al. 1993 ). These methods are effective in the short term but often lead to fundamental long-term detrimental effects on the mental health of the individual (Nash et al. 1993 ). Indeed, according to IPT, there are limits to the utility of the coping strategies which, when they have failed, can ultimately lead to a complete revision of the structure of identity.

A key factor influencing the effect of boarding school on identity formation is the length of time the child remains at boarding school, as the longer the threat goes on, the greater the impact on coping ability. Another factor relevant to this study is social context, which according to IPT can limit the choice of coping strategies, including the available social groups and how the ideology affects self-efficacy (Breakwell 1986 ). For example, as highlighted by participant responses in this study, the imposed and unescapable social interaction with school age peers was not always a positive experience.

Given that IPT draws heavily from Social Identity Theory (Tajfel 1979 ), the hierarchical nature of the boarding school, with its clearly defined in-groups and out-groups, would go some way to explain a change in identity in the growing child. However, the present sample of participants draw attention to the lack of choice over who they could spend time with and for how long; in this sense, SIT and therefore IPT may not provide a sufficient theoretical framework. Goffman’s dramaturgical self ( 1959 ), with its exploration of performance and the notions of ‘front’ and ‘back’ may provide a more appropriate explanation, as the young people are permanently playing to an audience and rarely given an opportunity to relax and develop an ‘offstage’ identity.

This social context is a significant factor in challenging the child’s opportunity to develop a cohesive self-concept. According to Goffman ( 1961 ), life in an institution leads to desegregation and disculturation which not only disrupts the natural development of the child during their time at school but also renders the act of leaving school as a further threat to identity. Although some participants did not find the initial act of leaving school to be challenging, most described difficulties in adapting to and living a life outside the institution. When asked to describe how they view their self-concept as a result, all participants recognised aspects of their identity that had been altered, and more than one participant stated that they would never overcome some challenges in spite of ongoing psychological therapy. Furthermore, when asked if they considered their sense of self to be well defined, there was a general consensus that on leaving school there was little self-concept and a need to adapt to the people around, with some poor choices of relationships made as a result. This reference to a lack of self-concept indicates a lack of moratorium and instead a state of diffusion (Marcia 1980 ; Meeus 2011 ).

According to the literature on boarding school syndrome (Schaverian 2011 ), the boarding school persona refers to a set of characteristics that are found in the ex-boarder which have developed as a consequence of the boarding experience. Participants of this study appear to acknowledge aspects of themselves as being outwardly charming and capable, in-keeping with holding a position or background of ‘privilege’ and/or ‘superiority’. This ties in with Goffman’s dramaturgical self ( 1959 ) and the need to learn the manners to play the role; there is a sense that the purpose of boarding school is to learn how to do this. However, one participant also described this learnt persona as ‘hollow’, with more than one participant referring to serious interpersonal problems due to the lack of a defined self-concept.

Whilst the small sample size used in this (and many other qualitative studies) limits the generalisability of the findings, it privileges the individual participant and allows for a richer depth of analysis (Pringle et al. 2011 ). Nevertheless, the fact that all participants were recruited via a support group may have increased selection bias toward individuals with a negative view of their boarding school education. Furthermore, whilst the long period of time between school attendance and SSI may have resulted in recall-bias, this does not necessarily undermine the validity of participants’ current perspective of how boarding school influenced their sense of self. Further research is clearly needed to gauge the extent to which the experiences identified in this study are relevant to other individuals in the UK who have attended a boarding school. This includes individuals who have attended boarding school more recently, given that the mean age of participants in this study was 52 (i.e. the boarding school experience today is likely to different than it was 40 years ago).

Furthermore, from a reflexive standpoint, it should be noted that one of the authors (FS) attended boarding school as a child. IPA is compatible with the researcher having self-awareness of the phenomenon under investigation, as it offers greater insight into the experience and allows for follow-up questions that come from a place of recognition. Nevertheless, it can also moderate objectivity and result in assumptions about common experiences that may not have been relevant to the participant (see Methodology section for a description of steps taken to maximise objectivity and validity).

Overall, this study aimed to provide an in-depth idiographic approach to the exploration of a childhood spent at boarding school and the impact on the developing sense of self, as well as the long-term effects on identity. As qualitative studies in this area are few, the present study provides useful insights into the long-term psychological effects of adults who previously attended boarding school. Whilst further research is required to ascertain the relevancy of these findings to children currently attending boarding school, findings indicate that participants of this study experienced different degrees of distress as a result of attending boarding school, with significant pressure to fit in with peers. The general description is that of a clearly defined external persona, who knows the rules of the game but contrasts with a much less well-defined internal self-concept. In the words of one participant, ‘it was the making of me, that was who I was, regardless of how I felt about it and I live the rest of my life trying to come to terms with it’.

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Simpson, F., Haughton, M. & Van Gordon, W. An Identity Process Theory Account of the Impact of Boarding School on Sense of Self and Mental Health: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Int J Ment Health Addiction 20 , 2116–2133 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00503-4

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Life in Indigenous Boarding Schools

Survivors of schools in the US spoke with scholars about their experiences of cruelty, neglect, and cultural degradation.

Recently, US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced an investigation into federal boarding schools for Native Americans, where unknown numbers of Indigenous students were abused and died in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 2004, the Journal of American Indian Education published a study exploring the boarding schools’ effects on those held there by a team of mental health professionals (Stephen Colmant, Lahoma Schultz, Rockey Robbins, Peter Ciali, Julie Dorton, and Yvette Rivera-Colmant).

The researchers spoke with thirty adult alumni of boarding schools in Oklahoma, California, and Kansas, as well as sixteen teenagers and seven staff living or working at a school in Oklahoma at the time of the study.

Many of the study participants weren’t the first in their families to be sent to boarding schools. “Nancy,” age forty-one, described how her grandfather refused to teach her about the family’s cultural traditions because of the way he’d been treated at a school. He’d had his mouth washed out with lye soap.

“And my grandpa even said that they just cut his braids off,” Nancy said. “Made him wear those wool clothes, he said; made him wear those boots. And they couldn’t talk. Even brothers and sisters couldn’t talk.”

While children in earlier generations were often forcibly removed from their homes and sent to the schools, many of the people Colmant and his colleagues interviewed said they’d ended up at the schools due to trouble at home. High levels of poverty and intergenerational trauma left some Native American families seeing the schools as the best option for their children.

Still, many of the former students reported severe abuse and neglect at the schools. “John” described the superintendent at the school he attended in the 1960s severely beating students. If a student moved while the man was counting out blows, he would start again at one.

“So the whippings I would say were pretty severe,” John said. “If you moved two or three times, let me tell you they were literally beating the s–t out of you. S–t ran down your leg after a while.”

All of the interviewees said they felt intensely lonely and homesick, and many said they had no consistent relationships with caring adults. Some described seeking out support from adults who included a cook and a night watchman, or from other students.

“I was only six and very scared,” one said. “An older student let me sleep with her. She looked after me.”

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For many alumni, life in the residential schools affected their later experiences in life, including in marriage and parenting. Some described what the authors characterize as “posttraumatic growth,” finding ways to take something positive from a difficult experience. One woman, for example, explained that she tried to give her own children the experience of home she was denied.

“I wanted to be there for them, to have every moment to be involved in their life,” she said. “I don’t know, I just didn’t want them to go through what I did.”

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The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Working for Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation for Boarding School Survivors and Descendants

Boarding School Research and Historical Narratives

September 21, 2020 By NABS

To date, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has identified 367 boarding schools in the U.S. As an intern at NABS, my principal task has been to research and to compose a historical narrative about each of these schools, documenting as much basic information as possible, such as when the school was built; how many years it was in operation; what religious, governmental, or tribal organizations operated it; which tribes had students taken there; what buildings are still standing; and whether or not the school had a cemetery. In addition to this type of descriptive research, I have also been searching for the location of student records, which might be held by religious organizations’ archives, university libraries, or the National Archives and Records Administration.

This comprehensive list and wide-ranging research are profound due to their unprecedented scope and range. Prior to NABS, this level of inquiry had never been attempted. My efforts here are exciting because I have the opportunity to contribute to this extraordinary work, refining and expanding the knowledge and history associated with each school. Additionally, the information I am collecting will be included in the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA) that NABS is developing. By digitizing paper records from boarding schools, NIBSDA will make those files accessible to survivors and their descendants, regardless of their proximity to physical archives.

I am also humbled to help lay a foundation for future researchers. The data we are compiling at NABS today will assist those conducting in-depth research tomorrow. It will be invaluable, for example, for anyone looking for information about relatives who attended a boarding school. They will have ready access to key information and artifacts, such as the location of student records, letters to and from school children, report cards, attendance records, and the GPS coordinates of buildings.

This past spring, I graduated with a master’s degree in heritage studies and public history, a program that focuses on creating equity in cultural institutions and fostering ethical community collaboration. All class projects for this program were completed with real communities to address their unique challenges and goals. One such assignment requiring community-driven collaboration turned into the capstone project for my master’s degree. It started as a discussion with my fellow cohort and Upper Sioux Community member Tianna Odegard. Together, we set up a meeting between NABS and the Upper Sioux Board of Trustees to discuss potential directions for a collaboration. The board indicated the importance of education and healing with regard to Upper Sioux boarding school survivors and their descendants. The result was an important collaborative venture called “Sharing the Records of the Pipestone Indian Boarding School with Its Survivors and Their Descendants,” a grant-funded project through the Minnesota Humanities Center. Additionally, this project documented the partnership process and created guidelines for ethical and reciprocal community collaboration.

Over the past few years of my involvement with NABS, I have been excited to see the growth of vital research, projects, and healing programs benefitting Indian Country, and I am thrilled to continue building my relationship with this impactful organization.

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Native American Boarding Schools Research Paper

Gaudium et spes and boarding schools, pro arguments, against arguments.

Native American boarding schools have been a prominent part of the US history, remembered for the many controversies and atrocities committed within. In Oclahoma, St. Patrick’s Mission school and others operated since 1875, being responsible for the education of hundreds of Native American children (Oklahoma Historical Society, n.d.). From a sociological perspective, it is possible to argue both for and against their existence as an institution. Gaudium et Spes, for example can be utilized to either support or discourage the use of the boarding school system within Native American Communities. Section 25 of the text discusses the importance of social institutions towards promoting the common wellbeing and cultivating an individual. Partaking in social structures and the formation of dependencies, or socialization, is noted to be especially important for people. It is stated that the process “brings with it many advantages with respect to consolidating and increasing the qualities of the human person, and safeguarding his rights” (“Gaudium Et Spes,” n.d.). This quality is present in social in most social institutions, such as schools. Therefore, it can be argued that boarding schools are a necessary and beneficial component of socialization as a whole, and bring benefits despite their potential flaws.

Alternatively, one can see them from an opposite perspective. Section 26 of Gaudium et Spes talks about the importance of family and personal freedoms. It is noted that each individual requires the capacity to act on their personal wishes build a family and interact with others (“Gaudium Et Spes,” n.d.). Similarly, the role of a family unit as a component of personal fulfillment is noted. If one considers boarding schools from this perspective, they are a detriment to human flourishing. A boarding school takes children away from their families, oftentimes against their will, and denies many the opportunity to realize their wishes.

Discussing the topic of boarding schools for Native Americans further, it is possible to find arguments supporting the practice from the time periods they were established in. The article from the The Catholic Telegraph, dated January 1890, proposes boarding schools as the only suitable option for native children (The Catholic Telegraph, n.d.). In particular, the author cites their ability to socialize the Native Americans in accordance with Christian American values, and promote the formation of nuclear families (The Catholic Telegraph, n.d.). In addition, the writer notes low rates of attendance for regular schools by native children as the reason for their argument. Taking both of these sentiments as truth, it can be surmised that a system of compulsory boarding school education is a necessary and only solution to the problem of Native American education.

There are specific arguments against this stance, however, particularly regarding the organization and actual implementation of boarding schools. Constructed as a way to teach Native American children, they were envisioned to possess all the necessary accommodations for housing and prolonged living. With both the dorms and the school building, children were taken away from their families for prolonged stay. The actual existing boarding schools, unfortunately, did not meet the proper standards for educational or residential buildings. The buildings were well-known for their poor financing, resulting in terrible living conditions and a lack of necessary infrastructure (Native Voices, 1903). Most boarding schools were built from existing barrack buildings or constructed without proper care. In addition, boarding schools, particularly ones established by Catholic religious orders, often focused heavily on the Christian faith. In schools such as St. Patrick’s in Anadarko native spiritual and religious practices were prohibited, instead familiarizing children with Catholicism (Hinton, 2022). Pressure to conform and limited access to native traditions payed a large role in shaping negative experiences in boarding schools. Many factors found within boarding schools contributed towards children’s high mortality, including poor ventilation, overcrowding and violent treatment by the staff (Native Voices, 1903). Children were not screened for disease in full measure, resulting in outbreaks and other issues. Tuberculosis and eye disease were rampant among the students.

The Catholic Telegraph. “Indian Education.” Catholic Research Resources Alliance. Web.

“Gaudium Et Spes.” Vatican. Web.

Hinton, Carla. “Catholic Leaders Exploring History, Legacy of Oklahoma Catholic Indian Boarding Schools.” Oklahoman. Web.

Native Voices. “Overcrowding, Poor Ventilation Contribute to Deaths in Boarding Schools – Timeline – Native Voices.” National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. Last modified 1903. Web.

Oklahoma Historical Society. “St. Patrick’s Mission | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.” Oklahoma Historical Society. Web.

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Welsh leads equity-centered research practice partnership to reduce racial disparities in school discipline

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Last year, Richard Welsh reported findings on the persistence of racial disparities in exclusionary school discipline practices. Despite suspensions declining over the past decade as schools reformed their policies, exclusionary disciplinary rates remained higher for African American students. Across the South, in-school suspensions (ISS) are particularly prevalent and disruptive to the education of racially minoritized students. Given these facts, Welsh has embarked on a new co-design process of ISS that leverages an existing research-practice partnership with a school district in Georgia to crack the code on truly resolving racial inequities in school discipline policies and practices.

Supported by a $474,178 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation and a $125,000 grant from the American Institutes of Research Equity Initiative, Welsh is leading a three-year project with the school district to understand the role of race and power in equity-centered research-practice partnerships, how the dynamics of the partnership affect partnership activities, and how these activities influence research use by school administrators, district leaders, and school board members.

“These are the three key decisionmakers who can advance racial equity in school districts through policies, programs, and personnel. They make decisions about codes of conduct, which disciplinary programs to implement, and who to hire, including behavioral specialists to support students’ social-emotional development,” said Welsh, associate professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development.

“Improving the use of research evidence among education leaders via equity-centered research-practice partnerships can possibly lead to disruptive decisions necessary to addressing persistent racial inequities in school discipline. Also, turning the analytical lens on ourselves to examine how inequities might manifest in the partnership has implications for partnership and student outcomes,” Welsh added.

The research team will analyze their interviews with key decision makers, research-practice partnership primary investigators, and co-design team members. They will also observe school board meetings, school discipline committee meetings, and partnership meetings, as well as co-design workshops, district- and school-level documents, and materials to record the partnering process as well as the use of research evidence and disruptive decision-making. By engaging in cycles of disciplined inquiry to improve ISS processes, the partnership aims to reach its goal of improving youth outcomes.

The co-design process includes working with a team of school leaders and school personnel at three middle schools to analyze and reimagine their ISS process and infrastructure.

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Highlander Folk School

November 1, 1932 to November 30, 1932

On 2 September 1957, Martin Luther King joined with the staff and the participants of a leadership training conference at Highlander Folk School to celebrate its 25th anniversary. In his closing address to the conference, King praised Highlander for its “noble purpose and creative work,” and contribution to the South of “some of its most responsible leaders in this great period of transition” ( Papers  4:270 ).

In 1932, Myles Horton, a former student of Reinhold  Niebuhr , established the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee.  The school, situated in the Tennessee hills, initially focused on labor and adult education. By the early 1950s, however, it shifted its attention to race relations. Highlander was one of the few places in the South where integrated meetings could take place, and served as a site of leadership training for southern civil rights activists. Rosa  Parks  attended a 1955 workshop at Highlander four months before refusing to give up her bus seat, an act that ignited the  Montgomery bus boycott .

Lead by Septima  Clark , Esau Jenkins, and Bernice Robinson, Highlander developed a citizenship program in the mid-1950s that taught African Americans their rights as citizens while promoting basic literacy skills. Reflecting on his experiences with the Citizenship Schools and the emergence of new leaders from “noncharismatic people” who attended the training, Horton concluded that “educational work during social movement periods provides the best opportunity for multiplying democratic leadership” (Horton,  Long Haul , 127).

Horton, who claimed he had first met King during the civil right leader’s junior year at  Morehouse College , invited King to participate in Highlander’s anniversary celebration in 1957. While attending the celebration, an undercover agent sent by the Georgia Commission on Education took a photograph of King. The photo was sent throughout the South and used as a propaganda tool against King, with claims that it showed him attending a Communist training school.

Highlander continued to be a center for developing future leaders of the movement such as Marion  Barry , Diane  Nash , and James  Bevel . It was closed in 1961 when the Tennessee government revoked its charter on falsified charges that the school was being run for profit and that it did not fulfill its nonprofit requirements. The  Southern Christian Leadership Conference  (SCLC) took over the citizenship program that year, feeling that it offered, according to King, a plus for SCLC and the movement “in filling the need for developing new leadership as teachers and supervisors and providing the broad educational base for the population at large through the establishment of Citizenship Schools conducted by these new leaders throughout the South” (King, January 1961). Under the leadership of SCLC and the supervision of Clark, Dorothy  Cotton , and Andrew  Young , the schools eventually trained approximately 100,000 adults. In August 1961, Horton opened another school in Knoxville, Tennessee, called the Highlander Research and Education Center. He and the Center participated in the 1968  Poor People’s Campaign  and, after King’s  assassination , erected a tent complex at Resurrection City in Washington, D.C., holding workshops until police closed the encampment in June 1968.

Adams with Horton,  Unearthing Seeds of Fire , 1975.

Anne Braden to King, 23 September 1959, in  Papers  5:290–293 .

Glen,  Highlander , 1988.

Horton with Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl,  Long Haul , 1990.

King, Memo, “Leadership Training Program and Citizenship Schools,” December 1960–January 1961,  SCLCR-GAMK .

King, “A Look to the Future,” Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Meeting, 2 September 1957, in  Papers  4:269–276 .

King to Braden, 7 October 1959, in  Papers  5:306–307 .