Exposure to Cyberbullying and Classroom Social Climate as Predictors of Students' Sense of Belonging in Class in Elementary and Middle Schools

Children and adolescents currently conduct part of their social lives in cyberspace. Along with the increased use of WhatsApp – the most popular social platform in Israel – as a social network, we witness the spread of cyberbullying, that is, targeted aggressive activity against individuals in a virtual social space. Bullying in the virtual social space sometimes also flows into the actual social space in the classroom through feeding and refeeding, affecting the perception of the classroom social climate and the student’s sense of belonging in the classroom. Impairment of students’ sense of belonging in the classroom may impair their mental wellbeing and their functioning in school. The present study was designed to broaden our understanding of how exposure to cyberbullying relates to the social climate and students’ sense of belonging in the classroom beyond the students’ age and gender, distinguishing between exposure to cyberbullying in the private space and in the group space. The study involved 4,813 students (53% girls) in grades 4–9 in 191 classes within 33 schools. Participants filled out e-questionnaires. The findings showed that, as predicted by the research hypotheses, the more students are exposed to cyberbullying in the private and group spaces, the more negative the perceived social climate and students’ sense of belonging in the classroom will be. Exposure to simultaneous cyberbullying in both spaces, private and group, was found to be associated with even greater harm to the perceived social climate in the classroom and to students’ sense of belonging. It was also found that the perception of the social climate in the classroom mediates the connection between exposure and bullying in the classroom virtual space and students’ sense of belonging. The educational implications are discussed.