TY - JOUR
T1 - Bullying Reporting Concerns as a Mediator Between School Climate and Bullying Victimization/Aggression
AU - Zhang, Saijun
AU - Mulhall, Peter F.
AU - Flowers, Nancy
AU - Lee, Na Youn
N1 - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8974-625X Zhang Saijun 1 Mulhall Peter F. 2 Flowers Nancy 2 Lee Na Youn 1 1 The University of Mississippi, University, USA 2 University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA Saijun Zhang, Department of Social Work, School of Applied Sciences, The University of Mississippi, Garland 315, University, MS 38677, USA. Email: [email protected] 11 2019 0886260519889926 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 SAGE Publications This study aimed to examine whether bullying reporting concerns mediate the relationship between school climate and student bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior. Data were from a sample of 301 students in Grades 6 to 8 in two minority-predominant schools in a large U.S. metropolitan area. Findings from bootstrapped structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that for male students, a higher level of perceived anti-bullying school climate was negatively associated with bullying reporting concerns, while the reporting concerns subsequently were positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. For female students, perceived school climate was not associated with bullying reporting concerns, but the latter were also positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. Therefore, bullying reporting concerns mediated the association between perceived school climate and bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior for male but not female students. The findings suggest the importance of strengthening anti-bullying school climate to help students overcome bullying reporting concerns to achieve effective outcomes. The gender difference of associations between school climate and bullying reporting concerns may reflect the variation of bullying types experienced by male and female students, which calls for attention to the development of anti-bullying strategies that take into account gender differences and address various types of bullying. school climate bullying aggression gender difference SEM Mental Health America 072250 edited-state corrected-proof Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The process and outcome evaluation of the Illinois Safe Schools Project study was funded by Mental Health America (#072250) to Dr. Peter Mulhall (PI) and the staff at the Center for Prevention Research and Development in the School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The study used data collected in the evaluation. ORCID iD Saijun Zhang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8974-625X
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - This study aimed to examine whether bullying reporting concerns mediate the relationship between school climate and student bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior. Data were from a sample of 301 students in Grades 6 to 8 in two minority-predominant schools in a large U.S. metropolitan area. Findings from bootstrapped structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that for male students, a higher level of perceived anti-bullying school climate was negatively associated with bullying reporting concerns, while the reporting concerns subsequently were positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. For female students, perceived school climate was not associated with bullying reporting concerns, but the latter were also positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. Therefore, bullying reporting concerns mediated the association between perceived school climate and bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior for male but not female students. The findings suggest the importance of strengthening anti-bullying school climate to help students overcome bullying reporting concerns to achieve effective outcomes. The gender difference of associations between school climate and bullying reporting concerns may reflect the variation of bullying types experienced by male and female students, which calls for attention to the development of anti-bullying strategies that take into account gender differences and address various types of bullying.
AB - This study aimed to examine whether bullying reporting concerns mediate the relationship between school climate and student bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior. Data were from a sample of 301 students in Grades 6 to 8 in two minority-predominant schools in a large U.S. metropolitan area. Findings from bootstrapped structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that for male students, a higher level of perceived anti-bullying school climate was negatively associated with bullying reporting concerns, while the reporting concerns subsequently were positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. For female students, perceived school climate was not associated with bullying reporting concerns, but the latter were also positively associated with bullying victimization and aggressive behavior. Therefore, bullying reporting concerns mediated the association between perceived school climate and bullying victimization as well as aggressive behavior for male but not female students. The findings suggest the importance of strengthening anti-bullying school climate to help students overcome bullying reporting concerns to achieve effective outcomes. The gender difference of associations between school climate and bullying reporting concerns may reflect the variation of bullying types experienced by male and female students, which calls for attention to the development of anti-bullying strategies that take into account gender differences and address various types of bullying.
KW - SEM
KW - aggression
KW - bullying
KW - gender difference
KW - school climate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075715826&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85075715826&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0886260519889926
DO - 10.1177/0886260519889926
M3 - Article
C2 - 31766969
AN - SCOPUS:85075715826
SN - 0886-2605
VL - 36
SP - NP11531-NP11554
JO - Journal of interpersonal violence
JF - Journal of interpersonal violence
IS - 21-22
ER -