The impact of classroom climate on students' perception of social exclusion in secondary special education

The present study examines the relation between classroom climate in schools for secondary special education and students' perceived social exclusion. A total of 401 Dutch adolescents (70.3% males) with conduct problems, attending schools for special education, filled out questionnaires on classroom climate, problems in social information processing, externalizing behavior and perceived social exclusion. Results showed that a positive classroom climate was associated with a reduction of students' externalizing behavior problems and perceived social exclusion, which was associated with improvements in social information processing. However, these relations were only found at the within group level of analysis (between students) and not at the between group level (between classes); thus contextual (class level) effects could not be demonstrated. It can be carefully stated that a positive classroom climate in secondary special education may protect against perceived social exclusion. Future research is required to examine whether our findings can be replicated in other schools for secondary special education or can be generalized to secondary education in general.