Relations among future orientation, school bonding, and school bullying in adolescents in rural China

Abstract

Bullying is a specific form of aggression that is characterized by power imbalance whereby a more powerful individual or group intentionally and repeatedly causes harm to a weaker individual or group. Aiming at imbalanced power relationship, this study proposes a capital-building framework that focuses on empowering the weak party in order to reduce bullying. Future education orientation and school bonding may help build individual’s human and social capital. This study thus aims to examine relations among future education orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration and bullying victimization among adolescents in rural China.

A cross-sectional study using convenient sampling was conducted. Data was collected from 1,450 seventh to ninth grade adolescents in one middle school in Chongqing and four middle schools in Shenzhen. Students completed the exploration and commitment questionnaire, the psychological sense of school membership (PSSM) scale, and Olweus’s bullying/ victimization-revised (OBVR) scale to assess their future education orientation, school bonding and school bullying perpetration and bullying victimization, respectively. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediation/suppression effect of school bonding in the relationship of future education orientation and school bullying perpetration and bullying victimization.

This study found a prevalence of adolescents involved in bullying perpetration and bullying victimization; 49.2% adolescents (27.7% males and 21.5% females) reported bullying others and 73.2% adolescents (36.4% males and 36.8% females) admitted to being bullied at least once during their time in junior high school. This study also found that gender and type of children displayed significantly different effects on future education orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration and bullying victimization. Grade only had a significant effect on future education orientation, but not on school bonding and school bullying perpetration and bullying victimization. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that students’ future education orientation was negatively associated with school bullying perpetration. Future education orientation was positively and significantly associated with adolescents’ feeling of school bonding. School bonding had a significant indirect effect (b = .36) on the relation between future education orientation and school bullying perpetration. Gender did not yield a significant moderating effect in the full mediation model among future education orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration. However, school bonding had a suppression effect –rather than mediation effect –on the relationship between future education orientation and school bullying victimization.

This research suggests that school bonding may be one mechanism through which children’s orientation toward future education may have a buffering effect on their bullying perpetration. Future education orientation and school bonding act as protective factors for children at risk of bullying perpetration. School bonding serves as a protective factor for bullying victimization; however, future education orientation does not serve as a protective factor for bullying victimization. Implications for school bullying interventions focusing on future education orientation and school bonding should be tailored for bullying perpetrators and bullying victims.