Peer victimisation and its relation to class relational climate and class moral disengagement among school children

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine whether class climate and class moral disengagement each contribute to explain different levels of victimisation among classes. Eight-hundred-and-ninety-nine children from 43 Swedish elementary school classes participated in the current study. Class moral disengagement, class relational climate and peer victimisation were assessed by a self-report questionnaire. In order to account for the clustered nature of the data with students nested within school classes, a multilevel regression model was analysed. Consistent with our hypotheses, and after controlling for age, gender and ethnic background at the individual level and class size and the proportion of boys at the class level, both class relational climate and class moral disengagement uniquely contributed to explaining the between-class variance in victimisation. Thus, the findings suggested that victimisation is less likely to occur in classes characterised by a positive, warm, fair and supportive relational pattern between children and between teachers and children, and by lower levels of class moral disengagement.

Keywords:

• victimisation
• aggression
• bullying
• class relational climate
• moral disengagement
• class moral disengagement

Funding

The analysis and writing of the paper were supported by The Swedish Research Council (D0775301).