Authoritative school climate and peer victimization among Brazilian students

Abstract

According to the Authoritative School Climate theory, a school environment perceived with high levels of support and disciplinary structure can be a protective factor against violence. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand how support and disciplinary structure affected peer victimization among Brazilian students. Participants were 420 students from Brazil, between 7 and 14 years old (mean=10.02; S.D. = .91); 51.5% of the participants were boys. Measures were obtained from a self-report questionnaire with measures of victimization, authoritative school climate and sociodemographic data. Using multilevel modeling between individual and same-sex peer group analyses, 89.86% of the victimization variability was at the individual level. Results indicated a negative association between the student’s perception of support and reports of victimization, but no gender differences as predictors of victimization. Younger students who reported lowers perceptions of support also could be more victimized. *** Clima escolar autoritativo e vitimização entre pares em estudantes brasileiros ***De acordo com a teoria do Clima Escolar Autoritativo, ambientes escolares percebidos com altos níveis de suporte e estrutura disciplinar podem ser protetores contra a violência. Portanto, o objetivo desse estudo foi entender como o suporte e a estrutura disciplinar afetaram o relato da vitimização entre pares. Os participantes foram 420 estudantes, entre 7 e 14 anos (média=10,02; d.p.=0,91); 51,5% dos participantes eram meninos. As medidas foram obtidas a partir de questionário de autorrelato sobre vitimização, clima escolar autoritativo e dados sociodemográficos. Usando o modelo multinível, 89,86% da variação da vitimização foi no nível individual. Os resultados indicaram uma associação negativa entre a percepção de suporte pelo aluno e os relatos de vitimização, mas não foram encontradas diferenças entre gêneros como preditores de vitimização. Os alunos mais jovens, que relataram menor percepção de suporte, também apresentaram tendência maior para a vitimização.Palavras-chave: vitimização entre pares, clima escolar autoritativo, bullying.

Socially responsible children: A link between school climate and aggression and victimization

“…When there is more support, student virtues of social responsibility are even more connected to diminishing classroom aggression. The significant interactions between support and structure are consistent with the authoritative school model and highlight the importance of holding children to a high interpersonal standard, but giving them all the supportive relationships and explicit socioemotional instruction to help them achieve those standards (Amaral et al, 2019;Bear et al, 2014).…”

“…Positive perceptions of school climate have been consistently linked to fewer behavioral and emotional problems in middle childhood (Klein et al, 2012;Reaves et al, 2018;Wang & Dishion, 2012) and are associated with higher levels of school safety and lower frequency of peer victimization and aggression (e.g., Amaral et al, 2019;Corrigan et al, 2010;Gage et al, 2014;Gendron et al, 2011;Leadbeater et al, 2015). The importance of school climate and the ways that students conceptualize it appear similar across cultures (see LaSalle, 2018).…”

“…School climate is typically defined as the attitudes, beliefs, and values that make up the social environment within a school and it is demonstrated in the interactions between students, teachers, administrators, and community members (Mitchell & Bradshaw, 2013). Fair and equitable, authoritative discipline strategies, school organization (or disorganization), and quality of student-teacher relationships are dimensions of school climate that are consistently associated with fewer child problems in middle childhood (Amaral et al, 2019;Bear et al, 2014;Leadbeater et al, 2015). Measures of school climate often tap layers of social-ecological influences such as teachers, peers, school-level organization, and parents (Mischel & Kitsantas, 2019;Reaves et al, 2018;Rudasill et al, 2018).…”

“…Measures of school climate often tap layers of social-ecological influences such as teachers, peers, school-level organization, and parents (Mischel & Kitsantas, 2019;Reaves et al, 2018;Rudasill et al, 2018). Schools with more authoritative climates, with both higher levels of support and structure, show lower levels of aggression and victimization (Amaral et al, 2019), and there is evidence that this association may be moderated by gender stereotypes due to teacher's beliefs (Kokkinos et al, 2004) and also student's help seeking when facing victimization (Eliot et al, 2010). Teacher's socioemotional techniques may also be key to socializing students and preventing peer aggression and victimization.…”

Peer violence and student perception of school climate

“…The same authors cite results that show a significant impact of a negative school climate on increasing peer violence at school. Research conducted by Amaral et al (2019) also showed that student support (related to student's experience with teachers and other school professionals, and perceived as welcoming, inclined to help and respectful) was a negative predictor for reports of victimization. Similar results were obtained by Berkowitz et al (2015), on a sample of 53,946 fifth-and eighth-grade students in public schools in Israel, indicating significant negative correlation between school violence and positive student-teacher relationship.…”