An analysis of the relationship among psychological capital, classroom connectedness and school alienation of university students

Research studies show that school alienation of university students is widespread and extremely important problem. It is thought that the perception of psychological capital and classroom connectedness can be related to school alienation. It is predicted that classroom connectedness may increase as their perception of psychological capital heighten and behaviors originated from school alienation decrease. Concordantly the aim of this study is the analysis of relationship among psychological capital, classroom connectedness and school alienation of university students. The research has three sub problems. Student's level of psychological capital, classroom connectedness and school alienation in the first sub problem; whether it changes in terms of certain variables or not in the second sub problem; the relationships among psychological capital, classroom connectedness and school alienation of university students in the third sub problem are studied. This quantitative study was designed as a survey model. The descriptive method based on the general survey model is used in the first sub problem. The causal comparative design is used in the second sub problem. The relational survey model is used in the third sub problem. The target population of the study defines to include 17.250 students who had studied at Inonu University in the 2016-2017 academic year. The data are collected from 1.278 university students by using the stratified random sampling method in the study. "Student Alienation Scale", "Classroom Connectedness Scale" and "Psychological Capital Perception Scale (PCPS)" developed within the scope of research are used as data collection tools. In consideration of the acquired data; descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and structural equation modeling are used. In order to analyze the data of the study and test models, AMOS and SPSS are used. It is stated that university students have a high level of psychological capital, medium level of classroom connectedness and school alienation in view of findings of the research. While the perception of psychological capital of university students is seen not to considerably change in relation to variables such as gender, living with parents, it considerably changes in relationship to variables such as faculty, class level, level of household income in the light of statistical data. While the classroom connectedness of university students is not seen to considerably change in relation to variables such as gender, level of household income, living with parents, it considerably changes in relationship to variables such as faculty, class level. On the other hand, the perception of school alienation of university students is seen to considerably change in relation to variables such as gender, faculty, class level, level of household income, living with parents. Lastly, it is stated that there is a negative relationship between the perception of psychological capital and school alienation of university students and also between the perception of psychological capital and classroom connectedness of university students and there is a positive relationship between the perception of psychological capital and classroom connectedness of university students. Furthermore, classroom connectedness is stated to have a partial intermediary role in the relationship between psychological capital and school alienation. Consequently, psychological capital is determined to affect the perception of school alienation both explicitly and implicitly via classroom connectedness. It is stated that psychological capital and classroom connectedness variables altogether explains nearly 14% of the variance of school alienation. Fostering the perception of psychological capital and classroom connectedness of university students is concluded to contribute to students reducing school alienation.