Multilevel associations between bullying victimization, school engagement, and social-emotional learning
Date
2015
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This study investigated the multilevel main effects of student-level and school-level demographic factors, bullying victimization and the social-emotional learning (SEL) approach on students' perceptions of school engagement. It also investigated the multilevel moderation effects of the SEL approach in the association between bullying victimization and school engagement. The SEL approach was represented by three factors: teacher-student relationships, student-student relationships, and teachers' use of SEL instructional techniques. Data were collected from 25,896 students, grades 4-12, in 114 Delaware schools. Results of hierarchical linear analyses found that students' gender and race/ethnicity and their school's grade level (elementary, middle, or high school) and racial/ethnic diversity index had significant and meaningful associations with school engagement.
With student-level and school-level demographic factors controlled, students' perceptions of frequent bullying victimization was found to be significantly and meaningfully associated with lower school engagement at both the student and school levels. With demographic factors and bullying victimization controlled, positive teacher-student relationships, positive student-student relationships, and teachers' frequent use of SEL instructional techniques were significantly and meaningfully associated with greater school engagement at both the student and school levels.
Visual presentations of the multilevel moderation effects indicated that the cross-level moderation effects of school-level teacher-student relationships and teachers' use of SEL instructional techniques in the student-level association between bullying victimization and school engagement were potentially meaningful in practice, although they were not statistically significant. That is, the magnitude of the negative effect of student-level bullying victimization on school engagement may be mitigated with increased positive teacher-student relationships but intensified with teachers' more frequent use of SEL instructional techniques, as both reported by students at the school level. The multilevel main effects of bullying victimization and the SEL approach on school engagement and the multilevel moderation effects of the SEL approach in the association between bullying victimization and school engagement were consistent across subtypes of bullying victimization.
Findings support transactional developmental-ecological theory and social-ecological theory in understanding the phenomenon of bullying victimization and school engagement. They also support the whole-school approach and the comprehensive conceptualization and measure of the SEL approach in school engagement promotion and bullying prevention and intervention.