THE ROLE OF STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIP IN THE LINK BETWEEN SOCIAL COMPETENCE AND INVOLVEMENT IN BULLYING IN THE 1ST GRADE
<p class="Abstract">The present study was aimed at investigating whether student-teacher relationship plays a role in the link between social competence and involvement in bullying in the 1<sup>st</sup> grade. Subjects were 408 Lithuanian 1<sup>st</sup> graders, 225 girls and 183 boys. Analysis of results using structural equation modeling releaved that bullying behavior was directly predicted by learning-related social competence, while interpersonal social competence was linked to bullying behavior via student-teacher closeness. Bullying victimization was linked to learning-related social competence via student-teacher relationship conflict. </p><p class="Keywords">This work was supported by the Research Council of Lithuania under Grant No. MIP-003/2015</p>