Associations between Student–Teacher Relationship Quality, Class Climate, and Bullying Roles: A Bayesian Multilevel Multinomial Logit Analysis

Shaping Citizenship in the Classroom: Peer Influences on Moral Disengagement, Social Goals, and a Sense of Peer Community

“…At the classroom level, the peer community functions as a protective context against negative peer interactions (Solomon et al, 2000). For example, a positive, caring, and supportive peer climate at the classroom level has been related to less bullying perpetration (Dietrich & Cohen, 2021;Thornberg et al, 2019) and victimization (Thornberg et al, 2022;Thornberg et al, 2018). According to recent empirical investigations, associations between aggression and peer status were contingent upon the degree of peer community in the classrooms (Kim & Cillessen, 2023).…”

Basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy as predictors of students’ self-reported bystander behaviors over a school year: a growth curve analysis

“…For example, previous studies have shown that peer victimization is more prevalent in classrooms that score higher on hierarchical inequality ( Garandeau et al, 2014 ; Babarro et al, 2017 ; Pan et al, 2020 ) and collective moral disengagement ( Kollerová et al, 2018 ; Bjärehed et al, 2021 ). In contrast, peer victimization has been found to be less prevalent in classrooms that are higher in equality ( Garandeau et al, 2014 ; Babarro et al, 2017 ; Pan et al, 2020 ) and cohesion ( Babarro et al, 2017 ), with a more supportive, caring, friendly and respectful climate among the peers ( Košir et al, 2020 ; Dietrich and Cohen, 2021 ; Thornberg et al, 2022 ), and where teachers are warmer and more caring and supportive ( Di Stasio et al, 2016 ; Dietrich and Cohen, 2021 ; Kloo et al, 2023 ). Therefore, future studies need to take the sociomoral atmosphere of the classroom into account when examining individual variables and bystander behaviors, because it might also influence and motivate students who witnessing peer victimization to be more inclined to take different bystander actions.…”

“…Due to the classroom context, students might as bystanders have concerns about their own social status and vary in fear of being attacked or victimized and their belief in their ability to intervene, whether they perceive the aggression as wrong, and in what ways they attribute cause and responsibility, which has been suggested in qualitative studies examining students’ perspectives ( Forsberg et al, 2014 , 2018 ; Chen et al, 2016 ; Strindberg et al, 2020 ), Accordingly, previous work has indicated that bystander behaviors are contingent upon classroom contexts. Students who are witnessing peer victimization in school are more likely to defend a victim if they belong to a classroom with a more supportive, caring, friendly and respectful climate among the peers ( Thornberg et al, 2017 ), with a greater collective efficacy to stop peer aggression ( Sjögren et al, 2020 ; Thornberg et al, 2020 ), that have stronger antibullying norms ( Peets et al, 2015 ; Lucas-Molina et al, 2018 ; Thornberg et al, 2022 ), and in which bullies are relatively unpopular ( Pouwels et al, 2019 ). In addition to having direct associations with bystander behaviors, and in accordance with social cognitive theory ( Bandura, 1986 , 1997 , 2016 ), classroom variables can interact with individual variables in their influence on bystander behaviors (e.g., Gini et al, 2020 ).…”

The Healthy Context Paradox: When Reducing Bullying comes at a Cost to Certain Victims

“…Through this combination of multilevel actions, it would be possible, on the one hand, to change the relational climate of the classroom, by promoting friendship and defending behaviors, and on the other hand, to offer individualized and group support to the victimized students. Finally, the protective role of other contextual variables in “the healthy context paradox” will need to be further considered and investigated. For instance, considering the role of teacher-student relationships in bullying and defending behaviors (e.g., Lucas-Molina et al, 2015; Sjögren et al, 2021; Thornberg et al, 2022), it would be desirable to include the effect of other variables related to teachers’ attitudes and behaviors on “the healthy context paradox”. …”

“…Finally, the protective role of other contextual variables in “the healthy context paradox” will need to be further considered and investigated. For instance, considering the role of teacher-student relationships in bullying and defending behaviors (e.g., Lucas-Molina et al, 2015; Sjögren et al, 2021; Thornberg et al, 2022), it would be desirable to include the effect of other variables related to teachers’ attitudes and behaviors on “the healthy context paradox”.…”