Investigation of student covitality and school kindness among Syrian refugee, turkish internally displaced and native primary school students

The purpose of the present study was to investigate school kindness and student covitality at Turkish primary schools, in which Syrian refugee students, migrated to Turkey after the Syrian Civil War, enrolled in. The study was carried out on a total of 493 (112 Syrian refugee, 54% Turkish internally displaced, 324% native) students. The School Kindness Scale (SKS) was used to measure school kindness, and the Positive Experiences at School Scale (PEASS) was used to measure student covitality. First, the two measurement instruments examined in terms of their validity and reliability evidence for Turkish speaking Syrian refugee students. Afterwards, SKS and PEASS scores across gender and immigration groups (refugee, native, internally displaced) were compared by using independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and Kruskal Wallis H test. Finally, the predictive role of school kindness on student covitality was examined through simple linear regression analysis. Results showed that, females scored significantly higher than males in/on both SKS scores [t(449.55)= 1.89, p=.01] and PEASS scores [t(491)= 3.15, p=.00]. No significant differences were found in SKS scores and in PEAS scores across the three immigration groups (refugee, Turkish internally displaced, native). Finally, school kindness was found as a significant predictor of student covitality.