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The profile of a student’s sense of (un)safety at school: social, emotional, and academic dimensions

Jolita Dudaitė,Jolanta Urbanovič,R. Prakapas

Published 2026 in Frontiers in Education

ABSTRACT

This study explores the profiles of students who feel safe versus unsafe at school, examining how social, emotional, and academic factors are associated with students’ perceptions of safety. Drawing on data from the OECD PISA 2022 international assessment of 613,744 fifteen-year-old students across 80 countries, the analysis employs K-means clustering to identify groups of students based on their responses to four safety-related items. Students were classified into “safe” and “unsafe” clusters and compared across multiple domains, including academic behaviors, emotional well-being, social relationships, perceptions of the school environment, and socio-economic background. Findings reveal that students who feel safe at school are more likely to engage academically, report higher life satisfaction, experience stronger teacher-student and peer relationships, and come from more advantaged socio-economic backgrounds. In contrast, unsafe students tend to show academic disengagement, emotional distress, weaker social connections, and are more likely to experience bullying and attend schools perceived as less supportive or secure. These results underscore the relevance of school safety as a multidimensional phenomenon associated with relational, emotional, and equity-related aspects of students’ school experiences. The study contributes to a more holistic understanding of school safety as a multidimensional construct closely linked to students’ educational experience and well-being.

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