Physical and verbal bullying behaviors in school students: well-being, supportive school climate, and the social identity perspective

Literature has consistently demonstrated a concurrent association between poor well-being and bullying behaviors. There remains less work that focuses on understanding whether poor well-being can also predict bullying behaviors (Hong & Espelage, 2012). Literature in this field also experienced a shift in focus when the influence of the school, and not just individual and family characteristics, was demonstrated on rates of bullying and victimization (Berger, 2007). Concurrently, social psychologists have argued that the critical role of the school environment may be understood in terms of students' psychological connection to the school as a group (i.e. self definition as a school group member; Reynolds et al., 2007). The aim of the current research program was to incorporate a number of individual-psychological and school social environment variables believed to be related to physical and verbal bullying behaviors in high school in the one research design. A focus was on the school environment factors of school climate (academic support, group support) and school identification (self-definition as a school member), which were conceptualized as important but distinct constructs. In the first study, latent growth modeling was employed that included as predictors (a) anxiety and depression, (b) two school climate factors and, (c) school identification. These models were used to assess the impact of each of these constructs in predicting change in physical and verbal bullying behaviors over three years. Key findings are that change in the school climate factors was the strongest predictor of change in bullying and victimization. Positive change in school identification also predicted a decrease in bullying behaviors over time, whereas an increase in depression or anxiety across time predicted an increase in rates of both bullying and victimization over time. The second study in this program of research had a related but distinct aim; to advance understanding of the process through which the school environment impacts on bullying behaviors. Using a mediation analysis, school identification (i.e. a person's self definition as a school member) was investigated as one mechanism that could explain how it is that the school climate may come to affect individual bullying behaviors. The results showed that school identification negatively predicted peer aggression and partially mediated the impact of group support (but not academic support) on peer aggression when well-being, age, gender, and years at the school were controlled in the model. For the well-being predictors, when both depression and anxiety were also included in the model with the supportive climate factor the latter was the strongest correlate of peer aggression. When either anxiety or depression were examined in separate models depression or anxiety were also strong predictors of peer aggression. Taken together, future research should continue to work from an approach that aims to understand the complex relationship between individual-psychological and school social environment variables in impacting on incidence of bullying behavior. School-based interventions may benefit from addressing individual characteristics such as student well-being, and contextual aspects of the school including school climate and students sense of social identity within the school