![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
Although school climate has been identified as a protective factor for youth development in the United States, few longitudinal studies have examined the relationship between school climate and student outcomes in China. This study explored the relationship between school climate, victimization, covitality, internalizing symptoms, and academic achievement, and whether school climate moderated the relationship between victimization and mental health outcomes using longitudinal data. Survey data were collected from 1150 Chinese 3rd to 6th grade students (Mage = 10.27 years, SD = 1.03 years, 55% boys) from five elementary schools at two time points. Regression results showed that school climate factors, including student-teacher relationships, clear expectations, respect for diversity and fairness of rules, predicted victimization, mental health (both internalizing symptoms and covitality), and academic grades six months later. School climate did not moderate the relationship between victimization and mental health. Our results suggest that it is important to foster positive school climate in order to prevent bullying and promote positive youth development among elementary students in China.
Keywords covitality, grades, internalizing symptoms, school climate, victimization
References
Section:
| Aldridge, J. M., Fraser, B. J., Fozdar, F., Ala’i, K., Earnest, J., Afari, E. (2016) Students’ perceptions of school climate as determinants of wellbeing, resilience and identity. Improving Schools 19(1): 5–26. doi: 10.1177/1365480215612616. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Bear, G., Gaskins, C., Blank, J., Chen, F. (2011) Delaware school climate survey—student: Its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability. Journal of School Psychology 49(2): 157–174. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2011.01.001. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Bradshaw, C. P., Sawyer, A. L., O’Brennan, L. M. (2007) Bullying and peer victimization at school: Perceptual differences between students and school staff. School Psychology Review 36: 361–382. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977) Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist 32: 513–531. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Chen, X., Chen, H. (2010) Children’s social functioning and adjustment in the changing Chinese society. In: Silbereisen, R. K., Chen, X. (eds) Social change and human development: Concepts and results, London: SAGE, pp. 209–226. Google Scholar | |
| Cheng, Y., Newman, I. M., Qu, M., Mbulo, L., Chai, Y., Chen, Y., & Shell, D. F. (2010). Being bullied and psychosocial adjustment among middle school students in China. Journal of School Health, 80(4), 193–199. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00486.x. Google Scholar | |
| Cole, D. A., Tram, J. M., Martin, J. M., Hoffman, K. B., Ruiz, M. D., Jacquez, F. M., & Maschman, T. L. (2002). Individual differences in the emergence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: A longitudinal investigation of parent and child reports. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111(1), 156–165. doi:10.1037//0021-843X.111.1.156. Google Scholar | |
| Cook, C. R., Williams, K. R., Guerra, N. G., Kim, T. E., Sadek, S. (2010) Predictors of bullying and victimization in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic investigation. School Psychology Quarterly 25: 65–83. doi:10.1037/a0020149. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Cortes, K. I., Kochenderfer-Ladd, B. (2014) To tell or not to tell: What influences children’s decisions to report bullying to their teachers? School Psychology Quarterly 29(3): 336–348. doi:10.1037/spq0000078. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Deighton, J., Tymms, P., Vostanis, P., Belsky, J., Fonagy, P., Brown, A., Wolpert, M. (2013) The development of a school-based measure of child mental health. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 31(3): 247–257. doi: 10.1177/0734282912465570. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Espelage, D. L., Polanin, J. R., Low, S. K. (2014) Teacher and staff perceptions of school environment as predictors of student aggression, victimization, and willingness to intervene in bullying situations. School Psychology Quarterly 29(3): 287–305. doi:10.1037/spq0000072. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Fullchange, A., Furlong, M. J. (2016) An exploration of effects of bullying victimization from a complete mental health perspective. SAGE Open 6(1)): doi:10.1177/2158244015623593. Google Scholar | |
| Furlong, M. J., You, S., Renshaw, T., O’ Malley, M. D., Rebelez, J. (2013) Preliminary development of the positive experiences at school scale for elementary school children. Child Indicators Research 6: 753–775. doi:10.1007/s12187-013-9193-7. Google Scholar | |
| Gendron, B. B., Williams, K. R., Guerra, N. G. (2011) An analysis of bullying among students within schools: Estimating the effects of individual normative beliefs, self-esteem, and school climate. Journal of School Violence 10(2): 150–164. doi:10.1080/15388220.2010.539166. Google Scholar | |
| Gini, G., Card, N., Pozzoli, T. (2018) A meta-analysis of the differential relations of traditional and cyber-victimization with internalizing problems. Aggressive Behavior 44(2): 185–198. doi:10.1002/ab.21742. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Gong, R. (2016). A cross-cultural comparison of US and Chinese students’ perceptions of school safety (master’s thesis). Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Retrieved online from https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/5001 Google Scholar | |
| Han, Z., Zhang, G., Zhang, H. (2017) School bullying in urban China: Prevalence and correlation with school climate. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14(10): 1116doi:10.3390/ijerph14101116. Google Scholar | |
| Hirschi, T. (1969) Causes of delinquency, Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar | |
| Hofstede, G. (1986) Cultural differences in teaching and learning. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 10(3): 301320doi:10.1016/0147-1767(86)90015-5. Google Scholar | |
| Jia, Y., Way, N., Ling, G., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Hughes, D., Lu, Z. (2009) The influence of student perceptions of school climate on socioemotional and academic adjustment: A comparison of Chinese and American adolescents. Child Development 80(5): 1514–1530. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01348.x. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Konishi, C., Miyazaki, Y., Hymel, S., Waterhouse, T. (2017) Investigating associations between school climate and bullying in secondary schools: Multilevel contextual effects modeling. School Psychology International 38: 240–263. doi:10.1177/0143034316688730. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Leadbeater, B. J., Sukhawathanakul, P., Thompson, K., Holfeld, B. (2015) Parent, child, and teacher reports of school climate as predictors of peer victimization, internalizing and externalizing in elementary school. School Mental Health 7(4): 261–272. doi:10.1007/s12310-015-9154-z. Google Scholar | |
| Lee, W. O. (1996) The cultural context for Chinese learners: Conceptions of learning in the Confucian tradition. In: Watkins, D. A., Biggs, J. B. (eds) The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological and contextual influences, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre and Victoria, Australia: The Australian Council for Educational Research, pp. 25–41. Google Scholar | |
| Lee, C., Song, J. (2012) Functions of parental involvement and effects of school climate on bullying behaviors among South Korean middle school students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 27(12): 2437–2464. doi:10.1177/0886260511433508. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Lenzi, M., Dougherty, D., Furlong, M., Sharkey, J., Dowdy, E. (2015) The configuration protective model: Factors associated with adolescent behavioral and emotional problems. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 38: 49–59. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2015.03.003. Google Scholar | |
| Li, J. (2005) Mind or virtue: Western and Chinese beliefs about learning. Current directions in psychological science 14(4): 190–194. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00362.x. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Li, X., Xie, J., Wang, Z. (1998) Jiangxi Higher Education Publishing House. Reform and development of Chinese higher teacher education, Jiangxi: Jiangxi Higher Education Publishing House. Google Scholar | |
| Li, Y., Coplan, R. J., Archbell, K. A., Bullock, A., Chen, L. (2016) Chinese kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s classroom social behavior. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 36: 122–132. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.10.008. Google Scholar | |
| Liu, Y., Lu, Z. (2012) Chinese high school students’ academic stress and depressive symptoms: Gender and school climate as moderators. Stress and Health 28(4): 340–346. doi:10.1002/smi.2418. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Low, S., Ryzin, M. (2014) The moderating effects of school climate on bullying prevention efforts. School Psychology Quarterly 29: 306–319. doi: 10.1037/spq0000073. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Maas, C. J. M., Hox, J. J. (2005) Sufficient sample sizes for multilevel modeling. Methodology 1(3): 86–92. doi: 10.1027/1614-1881.1.3.86. Google Scholar | |
| National School Climate Council. (2007). The school climate challenge: Narrowing the gap between school climate research and school climate policy, practice guidelines and teacher education policy. Retrieved from https://www.schoolclimate.org/school-climate Google Scholar | |
| Patalay, P., Deighton, J., Fonagy, P., Vostanis, P., Wolpert, M. (2014) Clinical validity of the me and my school questionnaire: A self-report mental health measure for children and adolescents. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 8: 17Available at: https://capmh.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1753-2000-8-17. doi:10.1186/1753-2000-8-17. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Renshaw, T. L., Furlong, M. J., Dowdy, E., Rebelez, J., Smith, D. C., O’Malley, M. D., Strøm, I. F. (2014) Covitality: A synergistic conception of adolescents’ mental health. In: Furlong, M. J., Gilman, R., Huebner, E. S. (eds) Handbook of positive psychology in the schools, (2nd ed). New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Smokowski, P. R., Evans, C. B., Cotter, K. L. (2014) The differential impacts of episodic, chronic, and cumulative physical bullying and cyberbullying: The effects of victimization on the school experiences, social support, and mental health of rural adolescents. Violence and Victims 29(6): 1029–1046. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00076. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Skrzypiec, G., Askell-Williams, H., Zhao, X., Du, W., Cao, F., Xing, L. (2018) Predictors of mainland Chinese students’ well-being. Psychology in the Schools 55(5): 539–554. doi:10.1002/pits.22122. Google Scholar | |
| Turner, I., Reynolds, K. J., Lee, E., Subasic, E., Bromhead, D. (2014) Well-being, school climate, and the social identity process: A latent growth model study of bullying perpetration and peer victimization. School Psychology Quarterly 29(3): 320–335. doi: 10.1037/spq0000074. Google Scholar | Medline | ISI | |
| Waasdorp, T. E., Pas, E. T., O’Brennan, L. M., Bradshaw, C. P. (2011) A multilevel perspective on the climate of bullying: Discrepancies among students, school staff, and parents. Journal of School Violence 10(2): 115–132. doi:10.1080/15388220.2010.539164. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Wang, C., Berry, B., Swearer, S. (2013) The critical role of school climate in effective bullying prevention. Theory into Practice 52(4): 296–302. doi: 10.1080/00405841.2013.829735. Google Scholar | |
| Wang, W., Vaillancourt, T., Brittain, H. L., McDougall, P., Krygsman, A., Smith, D., Hymel, S. (2014) School climate, peer victimization, and academic achievement: Results from a multi-informant study. School Psychology Quarterly 29(3): 360377doi:10.1037/spq0000084. Google Scholar | |
| Wang, C., La Salle, T., Wu, C., Do, K. A., & Sullivan, K. E. (2018). Victimization, school climate, and parental involvement as predictors for suicidal thoughts and behavior for Asian American middle school students. Asian American Journal of Psychology. Google Scholar | |
| Wang, C., Ni, H., Ding, Y., Yi, C. (2015) Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the roles and functions of school psychological service providers in Beijing. School Psychology International 36: 77–93. doi: 10.1177/014303431456062.3. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Wang, C., Yang, C., Jiang, X., Furlong, M. (2018) Validation of the Chinese version of the social emotional health survey-primary. International Journal of School and Educational Psychology 6: 62–74. doi:10.1080/ 21683603.2016.1272026. Google Scholar | |
| Wang, C., Wang, W., Zheng, L., Atwal, K. (2016) Bullying prevention as a social justice issue: Implications with Asian American elementary school students. School Psychology Forum: Research into Practice 10(3): 251–264. Google Scholar | |
| Way, N., Reddy, R., Rhodes, J. (2007) Students’ perceptions of school climate during the middle school years: Associations with trajectories of psychological and behavioral adjustment. American Journal of Community Psychology 40(3–4): 194–213. doi: 10.1007/s10464-007-9143-y. Google Scholar | Medline | ISI | |
| WHO. (2004). Mental health: A state of well-being. Retrieved November 6, 2016, from http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/mental_health/en/ Google Scholar | |
| Wu, L., Zhang, D., Su, Z., Hu, T. (2015) Peer victimization among children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review of links to emotional maladjustment. Clinical Pediatrics 54(10): 941–955. doi: 10.1177/0009922814567873. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Xie, J., Liu, S., Yang, C., Furlong, M. J., Wang, C., Boyanton, D., Deng, J. (2018) Validation of the social and emotional health survey-primary for Chinese students. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 3(26): 522–527. Google Scholar | |
| Xie, J., Lv, Y., Ma, K., Xie, L., Bear, G., Yang, C., Gong, R. (2016a) Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Delaware School Climate Survey. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 24: 250–253. Google Scholar | |
| Xie, J., Lv, Y., Bear, G., Yang, C., Marshall, S., Gong, R. (2016b) Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale-Student. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 23: 594–596. Google Scholar | |
| Xie, J., Xie, L., Yang, C., Bear, G., Ling, Y. (2016) A comparative study of bullying victimization in Chinese and American adolescents. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 24(4): 706–709. Google Scholar | |
| Xie, J., Xie, L., Yang, C., Bear, G., Ling, Y. (2016) A comparative study of bullying victimization in Chinese and American adolescents. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 24: 706–709. doi: 10.16128/j.cnki.1005-3611.2016.04.029. Google Scholar | |
| Yang, C., Bear, G. G., Chen, F. F., Zhang, W., Blank, J. C., Huang, X. (2013) Students’ perceptions of school climate in the US and China. School Psychology Quarterly 28(1): 7–24. doi:10.1037/spq0000002. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Yang, C., Sharkey, J. D., Reed, L. A., Chen, C., Dowdy, E. (2018) Bullying victimization and student engagement in elementary, middle, and high schools: Moderating role of school climate. School Psychology Quarterly 33: 54–64. doi: 10.1037/spq0000250. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Yu, Y., Ge, M. (2010) Characteristics of perceived school climate and its relationship with school adjustment of middle school students: School attitude as a mediator. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology 18(2): 225–228. Google Scholar | |
| Zhao, Y. (2005) Character education in China today. Social Studies and the Young Learner 17(3): 11–14. Google Scholar |
Cixin Wang is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology with a specialization in School Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research focuses on bullying prevention, mental health promotion, and parenting, especially for youth from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Dengting Boyanton is the Dean of the Educational Research Institute at Tianli Education Group; Chair for the Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Education SIG of American Educational Research Association, President of Sino-American Educational Research Association. She worked as an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas (Brownsville) and Long Island University, Post. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia. She is the founder of Mutual Value Theory.
Ana-Sophia M. Ross is a School Psychology doctoral student at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention in the school setting.
Jia Li Liu is a Calvin J. Li Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian American Studies program at The University of Maryland. She received her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from The University of Connecticut. Her research interests include cross-cultural parenting, the effects of child temperament on parental socialization, and the development of culture-sensitive parent education programs for Asian immigrant families.
Kathryn Sullivan is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include the impact of peer victimization on child and adolescent mental health, and bullying prevention and intervention in schools.
Kieu Anh Do is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Her research focuses on family resilience, culture, and mental health.
