The Relationship between Students' Sense of Safety and Self-Efficacy in an Arab High School in Israel | Chapter 7 | New Ideas Concerning Arts and Social Studies Vol. 5

Sense of safety in school refers to students' perceptions of being protected from physical, emotional, and social threats within the school environment. Research over the past decade has consistently shown that students who feel safe at school tend to exhibit higher academic achievement, greater attendance rates, and reduced psychological distress. On the other hand, Self-efficacy, an individual's belief in their capacity to execute behaviours necessary to achieve specific goals, has emerged as a powerful predictor of academic persistence and resilience. This study investigated the relationship between students' sense of safety and self-efficacy in an Arab high school in Israel's Triangle region. While extensive research has documented the importance of both safety perceptions and self-efficacy for students' academic and psychological outcomes, there remains a significant gap in understanding how these factors specifically interact within Arab educational contexts in Israel. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design, data were collected from 281 Muslim Arab students (grades 10- 12) using validated measures of safety perceptions (physical safety, emotional safety, and security concerns) and self-efficacy (academic, emotional self-regulation, and social domains). Results revealed a significant positive correlation between safety perceptions and self-efficacy (r = 0.42, p < 0.001), with emotional safety emerging as the strongest predictor of self-efficacy (β = 0.36, p = 0.001). The relationship between safety and self-efficacy appeared somewhat stronger for female students (r = 0.47) compared to male students (r = 0.38), though this difference was not statistically significant. Emotional self-regulation efficacy showed the strongest correlation with safety perceptions (r = 0.48, p < 0.001), suggesting the particular importance of safety for developing emotional coping resources. Supplementary qualitative data highlighted how cultural identity and collective values influenced students' experiences of safety and self-efficacy development. These findings suggest that creating secure and supportive school environments, with particular attention to emotional safety, may be an effective strategy for enhancing Arab students' belief in their capabilities, potentially improving academic outcomes and psychological well-being even in challenging sociopolitical contexts.

 

Author(s) Details

Abdul Kareem Igbaria
Department of English, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.

 

Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/nicass/v5/6126