Whether students feel comfortable at school has become a key indicator for successful teaching (Hagenauer & Hascher, 2018), a cooperative school climate conducive to learning (OECD, 2017), and a factor influencing the further success of students' educational careers (Bücker et al., 2018). In recent years, studies have also increasingly focused on opportunities for participation and co-determination in schools and lessons (Anderson et al., 2022; Graham et al., 2022). Through active participation in school and lessons, students can experience basic democratic skills; they learn to articulate their own concerns and interests and to be taken seriously with them (Quenzel et al., 2023). The political self-efficacy experienced in this way strengthens the concrete sense of belonging to the (experienced) community and the abstract confidence in the legitimacy of democratic decision-making processes (Johnson, 2015).

Different studies also find evidence that participation opportunities have a positive impact on student well-being (Sykas & Peonidis, 2022). Quantitative studies on the relationship between participation and well-being, however, are rare to date. Additionally, participation in school includes a wide range of possible actions and can range from talking to student representatives to actively involving as many students as possible in the lessons and in all matters relevant to school. Studies on whether these various forms of co-determination (such as whether students are asked for their opinions or whether they can actively shape school and lessons) also have a different impact on well-being are still outstanding. Since participation also demands time and commitment, for example when differences of opinion are openly discussed and solutions have to be worked out, it is also theoretically conceivable that participation can reduce well-being. The research findings listed above and theoretical considerations suggest that it is important to investigate the question of whether and when student well-being is related to the opportunities for participation in schools. In this paper, we intend to address this question.

When analyzing the relationship between participation opportunities and student well-being, it seems central to take into consideration the gender of adolescents. Numerous studies show that girls suffer more frequently from physical and psychological complaints from puberty onwards and have lower life satisfaction than boys (Potrebny et al., 2019). In turn, the frequency of experiencing discomfort and life satisfaction is closely related to student well-being (Löfstedt et al., 2020). Although the relationship between health and student well-being is well established, a range of studies find little evidence of a relationship between gender and student well-being (Ott, 2021). In contrast, other studies do suggest differences between female and male adolescents in terms of their well-being (Palsdottir et al., 2012). Consequently, the findings on gender-specific student well-being are ambiguous. Simultaneously, the perceived participation opportunities are also assessed differently in the group of girls and boys. For example, Müller-Kuhn et al. (2021) were able to show that there is a correlation between the gender of the students and the assessment of participation opportunities, whereas girls feel that they can participate more in school. We will therefore discuss the relationship between participation opportunities and well-being separately by gender in order to examine whether the available participation opportunities in school influence the well-being of girls and boys differently.

For this paper, data from the international project "Education and Participation" (Quenzel et al., 2023) of pupils from Vorarlberg (Austria) are used. The data was collected via online survey. The survey took place between March and June 2020 and was administered by the class teachers. The students are approximately 14 to 17 years old and are either at the end of lower secondary school or at the beginning of upper secondary school. This representative random sample was drawn by the Vorarlberg Regional Statistical Office. Despite COVID19-related school closures in spring 2020, the response rate is just under 65 percent. The realised sample comprises 1,526 young people from 92 classes. The data was weighted according to school type and gender. Student well-being is measured by two emotional aspects (school happiness, absence of school stress) and one cognitive aspect (school satisfaction). The student well-being scale is formed from the mean values of the variables school satisfaction (How satisfied are you overall with your situation at school?), school happiness (I actually like going to school.), and school stress (How do you feel about your everyday school life?). Based on these three components the scale student well-being (Cronbach's Alpha 0.68) is formed. For the analyses the following variables are included: (non-)involvement in decisions, pseudo-participation, active co-design, and conveying democratic values. In addition, we control for effects of language spoken at home, socioeconomic background, and educational background. The analysis consists of three steps: In a first step, the mean values of female and male participants are compared for the scales student well-being and different forms of participation. The second step involves analysing the correlations between the variables presented. The third step of analysis is also conditioned by the structure of the data. Because of the clustered data structure, we estimate gender-separated multilevel models in which students are clustered within school classes. This analysis includes testing the empty model and the mixed model with two level (individual and class level).

The analyses show that there are minor differences between girls and boys when comparing the mean values. Boys feel more often than girls that they are not involved in decisions at all or only in an illusory way. In the area of active participation opportunities, there are no statistically significant differences between boys and girls. Female and male adolescents perceive with roughly equal frequency that they can actively participate in designing their school. The teaching of democratic values at school and the well-being of pupils are clearly related for girls and boys. This means that students who experience their school as democratic also tend to feel more comfortable there. For girls, feeling that they have an active role in shaping their school is relevant to their student well-being. For boys, there is also a connection here, but it is somewhat less pronounced. Boys, in contrast, seem to react more sensitively to pseudo-participation. Through the analyses in the mixed model it becomes clear that conveying democratic values at school is the dominant predictor and explains student well-being most strongly for both gender. In addition, it is evident that for girls the opportunity for active co-design has a slightly higher influence on well-being than for boys. For male adolescents, student well-being is more negatively influenced by the perception of pseudo-participation. Students who have a voice in their school feel more comfortable. However, students are obviously sensitive to whether they are really participating or whether this is pseudo-participation. Positive effects on school well-being can therefore only be achieved if young people can really participate actively. This requires further research projects to gain a more precise understanding of successful participation processes.

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