Data were analyzed using a two-level model based on 22,552 students (49.8 % boys; M?age?= 15.70, SD?= .69) nested within 1,111 schools. A questionnaire devised by the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) international group was used.
Sense of community and procedural unfairness in the school at the individual level showed a significant association with students' psychosomatic symptoms. School characteristics predicted between-school variation in psychosomatic symptoms, in that procedural unfairness at the school level increased the risk for psychosomatic symptoms and a sense of community in the school protected students.
The present study suggests that the quality-of-school context may have a key role in predicting students' psychosomatic symptoms.