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This research aims to promote understanding and reflection about school adjustment. In order to achieve this purpose, and based on the literature and on a set of theoretical assumptions, from ecological and developmental perspectives, it was outlined and empirically tested a multidimensional model of school adjustment in early adolescence. This model especially examines social dimensions, but also the academic achievement and the family socioeconomic status, by proposing an integrated view of school adjustment. The empirical study developed in 706 students from 5th and 6th grades and assessed the student's self-perceptions and the perceptions of teachers and peers about student's social competence. The empirical test of the School Adjustment Model shows a reasonable global fit, supporting the defined associations among the components of the social competence, and between these social components and academic achievement and family socioeconomic and cultural status. These results highlight the need to consider multiple facets in the assessment and promotion of school adjustment, recognising mainly connections between the social competence and academic achievement of the student. These results are also a target of reflection and discussion, with implications for research, theory and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]