Campus climate: The role of teacher support and cultural issues

ABSTRACT

The literature on campus climate has mainly focused on diversity and demographic variables within single or multiple university campuses from one country. There is a need to investigate campus climate further with regard to cultural issues and the role of teachers. This study thus proposed to examine perceived teacher support as a mediator of the relation between institutional and psychosocial variables of the campus climate of two universities from two culturally distinct countries. To achieve this goal, 980 Brazilian and Portuguese university students answered the Institutional and Psychosocial Campus Climate Inventory. Findings showed significant differences in how students from two different countries described their campus climate and how both Brazilian and Portuguese students described their institutional climate more accurately than their psychosocial climate. Moreover, results from a mediation analysis revealed that perceived teacher support mediated the relationship between students’ perceptions of the institutional readiness of their university and their sense of well-being, as well as newcomer adjustment. A moderation analysis showed that the country of origin moderated the relationship between students’ perceived teacher support and newcomer adjustment. Implications for developing a positive campus climate are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• campus climate
• university students
• teacher support
• cultural issues

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília/DF – Brazil [BEX 1710/13-3].

Notes on contributors

Sidclay Bezerra de Souza

Sidclay Bezerra de Souza: Ph.D. in Psychology Specialization in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Advanced Course in Psychology Specialization in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Master’s Degree in Psychology Specialization in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal). Graduate in Clinical Psychology (Faculty of Humanities ESUDA, Recife - PE, Brazil). Researcher in Psychology (Postgraduate Program in Psychology of the University Federal of Pernambuco - UFPE) with funding from Capes by the National Postdoctoral Program (PNPD). Researcher at the Research Center for Psychological Science (CICPSI), specifically within the research area of Educational and Vocational Psychology and is researcher of the research line Cyberbullying.

Research Interests: Campus and School Climate; School Violence; Peer violence; Promoting coexistence and student well-being; Bullying and Cyberbullying; Cross-cultural studies in the field of school violence in different educational levels; Coping strategies in cases of bullying/cyberbullying.

Ana Margarida Veiga Simão

Ana Margarida Veiga Simão: Aggregation in Psychology (Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Ph.D. in Education Sciences (Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Master’s Degree in Education Psychology (Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Graduate in Psychology, University of Lisbon; Course of professorship (School Magisterial Primary, Lisbon, Portugal). Full professor (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Coordinator of the Research Program on Self-regulated Learning (PEAAR) Faculty of Psychology; Coordinator of the Graduate Training Network (GTN) focusing on the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Psychology with the University of Coimbra;

Research Interests: Self-Regulated Learning, Teaching and Learning processes, Learning Strategies; Teacher Education and Change; Teacher’s professional development; Higher Education Pedagogy; Effective Learning relationships; Violence in schools, Bullying and Cyberbullying.

Paula da Costa Ferreira

Paula da Costa Ferreira: Ph.D. in Psychology (Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon and Institute of Psychology of the Technical University of Darmstadt-Germany); Advanced Training Course in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon and Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra); Master’s Degree in Science Education – Learning and Psychological Development (Institute of Education of the Catholic University of Lisbon); Graduate in Education with specialization in English and Portuguese Didactics, Language and Literature. Researcher in Educational Psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal; Invited Assistant Professor of courses, such as Violence among peers: from bullying to cyberbullying and themes in psychology (Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal).

Research Interests: Self-regulation of learning and behavior; Cyberbullying; Learning Strategies, the Bystander Effect in Cyberbullying; Process Assessment Methods (Repeated Measures, Multilevel Analysis and Time Series); Development of Self-regulation Processes in Technology-supported Learning Environments; Teaching English; Validation of tools to support the Regulation of Learning, Classroom Management, Motivational and Emotional Regulation, Cyberbullying, Well-being, Teaching Children and Young Adults.