Exploring the relationship between school bullying and academic performance: the mediating role of students’ sense of belonging at school

ABSTRACT

In extending the understanding of how school bullying impacts student learning, this research explored the relationships among school bullying, students’ sense of belonging at school and academic performance in science, maths and reading. Data analysis was conducted using Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong (China) data of the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA2015). The results showed that both bullying victimisation and bullying climate had significant and negative relationships with students’ science, maths and reading performance. Students’ sense of belonging at school partially mediated the effects of both bullying victimisation and bullying climate on academic performance in science, maths and reading. Implications for bullying intervention and further research were also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• PISA2015
• school bullying
• academic performance
• sense of belonging
• mediating effect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work described in this paper was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [NO. 2242020S20018].

Notes on contributors

Liang Huang

Liang Huang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Administration, Southeast University. His research interests include educational management, school improvement, and quantitative research methods.