Ethnic school composition and peer victimization: A focus on the interethnic school climate

The increase in the prevalence of bullying and cyberbullying in recent years worldwide is undeniable. Although several intervention programs oriented towards the reduction of bullying and cyberbullying have been developed and implemented, significant disparities have been found regarding their efficacy. In most of the cases, the lack of the implementation of interventions involving all of the school community could be on the basis of this limited efficacy. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the TEI Program, an intervention based on peer tutoring, in the reduction of bullying and cyberbullying, and in the improvement of school climate. The design of the study was quasi-experimental, in which 2057 Spanish students (aged 11 to 16 years) participated from 22 schools, and were randomly assigned to the experimental group (10 schools, 987 students) or the control group (12 schools, 1070 students). The obtained results showed a significant reduction in bullying behavior, peer victimization, fighting, cyberbullying and cybervictimization in the experimental group after the intervention implementation. Similarly, a significant improvement in factors of school climate was found only in this group. The obtained results demonstrated that the TEI program is effective in reducing bully and cyberbully behavior, and at the same time, improving the school climate.

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Effects of school composition and school climate on teacher expectations of students: A multilevel analysis

Teaching and Teacher Education ◽

10.1016/j.tate.2014.08.008 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 148-159 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Marie-Christine Brault ◽

Michel Janosz ◽

Isabelle Archambault

Keyword(s):

School Climate ◽

Multilevel Analysis ◽

Teacher Expectations ◽

School Composition

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School climate, peer victimization, and academic achievement: Results from a multi-informant study.

School Psychology Quarterly ◽

10.1037/spq0000084 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 360-377 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Weijun Wang ◽

Tracy Vaillancourt ◽

Heather L. Brittain ◽

Patricia McDougall ◽

Amanda Krygsman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

School Climate ◽

Peer Victimization

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School characteristics and children’s mental health: A linked survey-administrative data study

10.31234/osf.io/g9kj5 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Praveetha Patalay ◽

Erin O'Neill ◽

Jessica Deighton ◽

Elian Fink

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

School Climate ◽

Economic Status ◽

Children’S Mental Health ◽

Children's Mental Health ◽

School Factors ◽

School Composition ◽

Behavioural Symptoms ◽

Socio Economic Status ◽

Mental Health Difficulties

Background. Mental health difficulties are childhood-onset with lifelong consequences. Children spend a large proportion of their daily life in schools, making the school setting an important context for mental health prevention and support. Methods. Data from a large-scale mental health survey were linked to the national pupil and school census databases. Data from 23,215 children from 648 primary schools were analysed to examine the associations of school composition (school size, gender, socioeconomic and ethnicity composition) and school climate with emotional and behavioural symptoms, as well as high mental health difficulties (scores above clinical cut-off). The proportion of school-level variation explained by composition and climate and whether the association of school factors with mental health were moderated by child-level socio-demographic characteristics were also investigated. Results. After controlling for child-level characteristics, 3 to 4.5% of the variation in children’s mental health outcomes could be attributed to schools. Of this, small proportions were explained by school composition (1.4 to 3.8%) and larger proportions were explained by differences in school climate (29.5 to 48.8%). In terms of composition, lower school socio-economic status (SES) was associated with higher mean behavioural symptoms and slightly raised odds of high mental health difficulties (OR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01,1.09). More positive school climate was associated with lower mean emotional and behavioural symptoms and lower odds of mental health difficulties (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.81). Some of the associations between school factors and mental health were moderated by child sex and SES.Conclusion. School composition was for the most part not associated with children’s mental health and explained only a small proportion of the between school variation in mental health. School deprivation was the only compositional variable to be associated with poor mental health and its association was moderated by the child’s socio-economic status. School climate explained a large amount of the between-school variation in mental health and appears a good target for universal prevention of mental health difficulties in children.

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