Teacher–student relationship and adolescents’ bullying perpetration: A moderated mediation model of deviant peer affiliation and peer pressure

Abstract

Although teacher-student relationship has been shown to be associated with bullying perpetration, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. The present study investigated (a) the mediating effect of deviant peer affiliation in the relationship between teacher-student relationship and bullying perpetration, and (b) the moderating effect of peer pressure in the relationship between deviant peer affiliation and bullying perpetration. Our theoretical model was examined with 2407 Chinese adolescents. Participants completed questionnaires regarding teacher-student relationship, bullying, deviant peer affiliation, and peer pressure. After controlling for gender and age, teacher-student relationship was significantly negatively associated with bullying perpetration. Mediation analysis indicated that deviant peer affiliation partially mediated the relation between teacher-student relationship and bullying perpetration. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that the relationship between deviant peer affiliation and bullying perpetration was moderated by peer pressure. Specifically, for adolescents with high peer pressure, the relationship between deviant peer affiliation and bullying perpetration became much stronger. These results can contribute to design effective interventions aimed at preventing and reducing adolescents’ bullying perpetration.

The impact of social and emotional learning on students' bullying behavior: Serial mediation of social and emotional competence and peer relationship

“…Numerous studies reached similar conclusions that adolescents who had poorer peer relationships had significantly higher risk of experiencing bullying (Biswas et al, 2022;Gao et al, 2022;Lee et al, 2022), and those with good peer relationships had a significantly lower probability of being bullied (Li & Hu, 2020). Children with poor peer relationship may be difficult to be recognized and accepted by peers, and they are isolated and marginalized in their school life.…”

Adverse childhood experiences and deviant peer affiliation among Chinese delinquent adolescents: the role of relative deprivation and age

“…In peer relationships, deviant peer affiliation has been identified as a critical risk factor for risky behaviors ( Zhu et al, 2016 ; Hinnant et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2023 ). However, a potential shortcoming of previous research is the lack of empirical data on high-risk youth (e.g., adolescent delinquents), as many empirical studies have been conducted with general samples ( Li et al, 2013 ; Gao et al, 2022 ). According to Moffitt’s theory on the study of antisocial behavior, the non-delinquent group may consist of adolescents with limited antisocial behavior during adolescence, while the delinquent group may consist of adolescents who continue to delinquent behaviors over the life-course ( Moffitt, 2005 ).…”

Data_Sheet_1.CSV

“…In peer relationships, deviant peer affiliation has been identified as a critical risk factor for risky behaviors (Zhu et al, 2016;Hinnant et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2023). However, a potential shortcoming of previous research is the lack of empirical data on highrisk youth (e.g., adolescent delinquents), as many empirical studies have been conducted with general samples (Li et al, 2013;Gao et al, 2022). According to Moffitt's theory on the study of antisocial behavior, the non-delinquent group may consist of adolescents with limited antisocial behavior during adolescence, while the delinquent group may consist of adolescents who continue to delinquent behaviors over the life-course (Moffitt, 2005).…”