Violent relationships at the social-ecological level: A multi-mediation model to predict adolescent victimization by peers, bullying and depression in early and late adolescence

Abstract

BackgroundFrom the social-ecological perspective, exposure to violence at the different developmental levels is fundamental to explain the dynamics of violence and victimization in educational centers. The following study aims at analyzing how these relationships are produced in the Peruvian context, where structural violence situations exist.MethodsA multi-mediation structural model with 21,416 Peruvian adolescents (M = 13.69; SD = 0.71) was conducted to determine the influence of violence in the school environment on violence perceived within school and violence exercised by teachers. In addition, it was also intended to determine whether these violent relationships predict depression through loneliness, and bullying through peer victimization. The existence of differences between early and late adolescence was also verified.ResultsResults confirm that violence in the school setting has high influence on violence exercised by adolescents and teachers within the school. Teacher violence is the most important predictor of depression through loneliness, and encourages peer victimization and the emergence of aggressive behavior. Exposure to violence exercised by support sources—teachers and classmates—explains more than 90% of the total variance explained in bullying behavior. Differences were found between early and late adolescence models.ConclusionThe high prevalence of structural violence in school settings facilitates the bullying/victimization dynamics within school. From a social-ecological perspective, this result suggests the importance of network cooperation at a mesosystem level, with teachers from educational centers playing a crucial role in the prevention of bullying/victimization.

Risk and protective factors at school: Reducing bullies and promoting positive bystanders' behaviors in adolescence

“…At the micro‐level analysis, as proposed in the fourth hypothesis, it has been confirmed that a disruptive school environment (based on violence) increases the possibilities of adults harassing students and the appearance of negative bystanders and aggressive behaviors in students. These results are similar to recent data from Peruvian schools that show a clear relationship between disruptive school environments and the aggressiveness exhibited by teachers (Oriol et al ., ). Nevertheless, it must be noted that this study addresses adults in schools and not teachers alone.…”

“…Environmental factors such as the reaction of staff to cases of bullying and the awareness of school about these issues have a direct influence on violence prevention (Bradshaw, Waasdorp, O'Brennan & Gulemetova, ; Wienke‐Tortura, MacKinnon‐Lewis, Ellis et al ., ). Similarly, a recent study revealed that violent school environments influence the aggressiveness that teachers exhibit toward students, consequently favoring peer victimization (Oriol, Miranda, Amutio, Acosta, Mendoza & Torres‐Vallejos, ). Teacher‐student relationships: one of the indicators that might fuel or reduce violence is the relationship between teachers and students (Saarento, Kärnä, Hodges & Salmivalli, ). Teachers’ beliefs influence the occurrence of bullying dynamics in the classroom (Troop‐Gordon & Ladd, ), and the support offered to students by the school may also be an important moderating variable in cases of domestic violence (Wang, Brinkworth & Eccles, ).…”

“…One of the aspects that mostly worries authorities is the high prevalence of violence still observed by teachers (Oriol et al ., ). Therefore, among the risk factors in the micro‐context, we have included teacher violence as a mediating variable in the risk model.…”

Validación del Cuestionario Breve de Victimización Escolar por Pares en México

“…Por otra parte, los resultados de la validez del cuestionario señalan que el diagnóstico brindado se asocia de forma significativa con los trastornos del dormir y un estado de ánimo deprimido. Esto es consistente con los resultados a las investigaciones que señalan una relación entre la victimización escolar con problemas de salud mental (Hunter et al, 2014;Klomek et al, 2013;Kubiszewski et al, 2014;Oriol et al, 2017;Wolke y Lereya, 2014). De la misma forma, los resultados señalaron una asociación negativa entre el diagnóstico brindado por el cuestionario y la satisfacción que tuvieron los participantes en la escuela y con su desempeño escolar.…”

“…Por ejemplo, existe evidencia que asocia la victimización escolar por pares con los problemas para dormir, demostrando que tanto quienes sufren de victimización como quienes la realizan, tienen patrones de sueño diferentes de aquellos quienes no sufren o realizan victimización (Hunter, Durkin, Boyle, Booth, y Rasmussen, 2014;Kubiszewski, Fontaine, Potard, y Gimenes, 2014), tienen una peor calidad del sueño (Zhou et al, 2015), y las víctimas muestran un mayor riesgo a presentar pesadillas y terrores nocturnos (Wolke y Lereya, 2014). De igual forma se ha asociado la victimización escolar con posteriores problemas como la depresión y el suicidio (Klomek et al, 2013;Oriol et al, 2017), y se considera importante evaluar la depresión y la victimización como un factor de riesgo para el suicidio (Kodish et al, 2016). En general, los resultados de éstas investigaciones señalan que aquellos que sufren victimización tienen un mayor riesgo de presentar depresión debido a malas estrategias de afrontamiento (Undheim, Wallander, y Sund, 2016), e incluso tienen mayores probabilidades de presentar depresión clínica en la vida adulta (Bowes, Joinson, Wolke, y Lewis, 2015).…”