Victim prevalence in bullying and its association with teacher–student and student–student relationships and class moral disengagement: a class-level path analysis

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to test whether teacher–student relationship (TSR) quality and student–student relationship (SSR) quality at class level and class moral disengagement (CMD), considered together in a single model, were related to class prevalence of victims (CPV) of bullying. A sample of 899 Swedish children was recruited from 43 elementary school classes. The participants filled out a questionnaire. Because the focus of the present study was on class behaviours, all analyses were conducted on aggregated class-level data. A path analysis revealed that the prevalence of victims was likely to be lower in classes with more positive teacher–student and SSRs and lower levels of CMD. TSR quality was not directly linked to CPV, but indirectly through its direct association with SSR quality. SSR quality was negatively associated with CMD and both were directly related to CPV. Results suggest that caring, supportive and warm SSRs in the class should be considered as a crucial protective factor against bullying victimisation. Further, the findings suggest that CMD has to be addressed in bullying prevention.

Keywords:

• Bullying
• victimization
• teacher–student relationships
• student–student relationships
• class moral disengagement

Notes

1. When victimisation is adopted as a continuous variable, i.e. the mean from a victimisation scale, the analysis would not make a distinction between those who are bullied and those who are occasionally peer victimised. In the current study, we have analysed individual victimisation as a categorical variable (being victimised by peers at least once a week) in order to identify those who are bullied considering the criterion of repetition (cf. Solberg and Olweus 2003), and examined associations between microsystem factors and prevalence of victims of bullying at class level.