Examining the link between forms of bullying behaviors and perceptions of safety and belonging among secondary school students

Abstract

Research suggests that students who bully may perceive the school climate less favorably. Person-centered analyses were used to identify distinct groupings of bullying behaviors and related social-emotional factors (i.e., victimization, internalizing, and perception of school and bullying climate). Latent class analyses were conducted on a sample of 10,254 middle and 2509 high school students and indicated four classes in middle school (Low Involvement, Verbal, High Physical/High Verbal, and High Involvement) and three classes in high school (Low Involvement, Verbal, and High Involvement). A Low Involvement bullying class characterized most students and was related to positive adjustment, whereas a High Involvement bullying class represented the smallest proportion of the sample (1.6% middle school and 7.3% in high school). Students in the High Involvement class reported increased victimization and internalizing problems, feeling less safe and less belonging, and perceiving the school climate to be more supportive of bullying (i.e., perceiving adults' prevention and intervention efforts as ineffective). In middle school, the High Physical/High Verbal class reported significantly higher levels of victimization as compared to the Verbal class. Findings highlight heterogeneity in bullying behaviors and underscore the importance of prevention and intervention programming that addresses safety and belonging.

Teacher and staff perceptions of school environment as predictors of student aggression, victimization, and willingness to intervene in bullying situations.

“…These findings supported our hypotheses and replicate previous work (Glew et al, 2005;Goldweber et al, 2013;Harel-Fisch et al, 2011).…”

“…Studies consistently report that negative school environmental factors (e.g., policies, staff reaction to bullying) can lead to an in crease in the frequency of bullying, aggression, and victimization and reduce the likelihood of students feeling safe in their school (Espelage, Bosworth, & Simon, 2000;Goldweber, Waasdorp, & Bradshaw, 2013). In contrast, youth with positive perceptions of their school envi ronment are less likely to exhibit externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggression; Espelage et al, 2000;Goldweber et al, 2013;Totura et al, 2009). The majority of these studies, however, are limited to student self-report of school cli mate or a narrow assessment of school environ ment (e.g., safety, belonging).…”

Associations between peer victimization and school climate: The impact of form and the moderating role of gender

“…Accordingly, aggression and peer victimization must be viewed from an ecological perspective by situating students’ peer relationship problems within the broader social context in which these problems occur. This broader social context–often referred to as school climate–includes a number of social and organizational dynamics present within the school environment, which have been associated with acts of aggression and peer victimization (Espelage, Polanin, & Low, ; Goldweber, Waasdorp, & Bradshaw, ). As such, school climate has become an important focus in school safety research (Astor et al, ; Bradshaw, Waasdorp, Debnam, & Johnson, ) and has been implicated as a critical marker of the success of preventive interventions aimed at reducing acts of aggression and promoting safe schools (Astor et al, ; Kallestad & Olweus, ).…”

Sense of school belonging: Psychometric properties and differences across gender, grades, and East Asian societies

“…Indeed, the relations of some SOSB items (e.g., attitude toward school) to the overall SOSB scale can differ across cultures. For instance, school bullying generally affected students’ attitude toward school (Cunningham, ; Goldweber, Waasdorp, & Bradshaw, ), and Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong students reported much more school bullying compared to South Korean and Japanese students (Mullis et al, ). Among students with the same SOSB, those from Chinese Taipei or Hong Kong might be less likely than those from South Korea or Japan to agree with school attitude statements such as “I like being in school,” and thereby yield different links between this SOSB item score and the overall SOSB score.…”