Educational Distrust and Institutional Legitimacy: A Systematic Review of the Social Distrust Framework (IDS)

Interpersonal and institutional distrust have become central concerns in debates on institutional legitimacy, particularly in contexts where education functions as a foundational arena of civic socialization. This systematic review examines how the Social Distrust Framework (IDS) articulates interpersonal distrust, institutional distrust, and structural conditions within educational systems. A total of 20 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 were analyzed across primary, secondary, and higher education. Searches were conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines across Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PsycINFO, Dialnet, and SciELO. Findings indicate that interpersonal distrust is associated with lower levels of perceived support, sense of belonging, and self-efficacy, while institutional distrust is linked to weaker perceptions of procedural justice, normative coherence, and school legitimacy. Structural conditions—particularly inequality and school segregation—are consistently associated with intensified distrust dynamics across contexts. The synthesis further identifies key mediating mechanisms, including academic motivation, perceived support, institutional credibility, sense of belonging, and perceived fairness (procedural justice), which translate multilevel distrust dynamics into differentiated outcomes such as academic achievement, school dropout, behavioral outcomes, student engagement, and civic participation. The Social Distrust Framework (IDS) is conceptualized as an analytical framework that explains how micro-level relational experiences are transformed into macro-level evaluations of institutional reliability. By integrating relational, institutional, and structural dimensions, the framework contributes to interdisciplinary debates on institutional legitimacy, governance, inequality, and social cohesion.