Students’ perceptions of school as a positive social environment and place of interactions were researched on a sample of 2661 seventh and eighth grade students in the Republic of Croatia (15 counties). The social environment and interactions scale was developed within the Project. For the purpose of this paper, 13 variables were used on a 5-scale negatively polarized Likert-type ordinal scale. The results obtained through One sample t-test confirm that students from the sample perceive school as a positive social environment and place of interactions. According to canonical discriminant analysis, the canonical discriminant functions were determined, revealing variables which discriminate participants on dependent variables. Age differences, i.e. differences between students in grade seven and eight were observed with respect to their perception of school as a positive social environment with positive interactions. A higher positive perception of school as a positive social environment and interactions is observed among younger students (7th graders) as opposed to their older friends (8th graders). Furthermore, female students, as opposed to male students perceive the role of school as a positive social environment and place of interactions at a higher level.
