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Article

School Climate, Bystanders’ Responses, and Bullying Perpetration in the Context of Rural-to-Urban Migration in China

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Pages 1416-1435 | Received 16 Dec 2019, Accepted 25 Mar 2020, Published online: 19 Apr 2020
 

ABSTRACT

The study involved examining the mediating effects of bystanders’ pro-bullying behaviors and defending behaviors between variables of school climate – teacher–student relationship, student–student relationship, and school safety – and bullying perpetration among children in mainland China. Comparative analysis was also conducted to explore whether relationship patterns and mediating effects differed across migrant status. Data used in the study came from a questionnaire survey with a school-based, multistage random sample of 1,696 children in Grades 4 to 9 in Nanjing and Guangzhou, China. Structural equation modeling and group comparison were performed with AMOS 25.0 to test the hypothesized model. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that only bystanders’ pro-bullying behavior mediated the effects of student–student relationship and school safety on bullying perpetration. Teacher–student relationship directly related to bullying perpetration without the mediating effects of bystanders’ responses. The results of a group comparison indicated that the mediating effects of bystanders’ pro-bullying behavior between school climate and bullying perpetration existed among migrant children but not among non-migrant ones. The findings make significant contributions to the literature and have important implications for the development of intervention services to reduce bullying perpetration in the school environment.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Von Nebbitt at Washington University in St. Louis and the reviewers of Deviant Behavior for their helpful suggestions and comments which have improved the presentation of the study.

Data sharing and declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The authors confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere, and is not under review by other journals.

Ethical approval

The procedures for this study and all consent forms and measurement instruments were approved by the Survey and Behavioral Research Ethics Committee in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and found to be in compliance with the ethical standards for research involving human subjects.

Informed consent

Participation was voluntary, and informed consent forms were collected from both the students and their parents or legal guardians.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Kunjie Cui

Kunjie Cui is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Work at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include school bullying, juvenile delinquency, rural-to-urban migration, and child development. Her recent work has been published in Children and Youth Services Review and International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

Siu-ming To

Siu-ming To is an Associate Professor and Head of the Graduate Division of the Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include youth development and empowerment, parenting and parent empowerment, and programme evaluation. He has published more than 50 international refereed journal articles.

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