Why school uniforms may be a bad idea: students’ sense of belonging is negatively impacted by wearing them, a new study suggests
- Rather than improving attendance or strengthening a sense of community, those wearing school uniforms felt lower levels of ‘school belonging’, a US study found
- The lead author of the study believes that fashion is one way that students express themselves. When they can’t, ‘they may not feel like they belong as much’
Wearing a school uniform is part of many children’s primary and secondary school experience. But does requiring them to wear one affect a student’s behaviour and performance?
A new study suggests a concerning reason students probably should not wear uniforms any more.
Its findings show that despite popular belief, requiring students to wear school uniforms did not seem to affect their behaviour or attendance. Instead, it may be negatively impacting their sense of belonging in school.
The lead author of the US national study was Arya Ansari, assistant professor of human sciences at Ohio State University. He conducted it with Michael Shepard, a graduate student in human sciences at the same university, and Michael Gottfried, associate professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania.
With the rising popularity of school uniforms not just in private schools in the US but also in public ones, Ansari and his team thought about the purpose of requiring students to wear them.
