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Broadening the contextual perspective on bullying: Direct and cross-level interaction effects between staff communication climate, classroom climate, and students' bullying experiences

Saskia M. Fischer, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg; Peter J.R. Macaulay, University of Derby; Ludwig Bilz, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg

Research on the development of bullying is often based upon Bronfenbrenner's socioecological model (Swearer & Hymel, 2015). Thus, various relevant contextual variables have been identified, including classroom climate and school climate (Thornberg et al., 2018; Zych et al., 2019). School climate has been defined in different ways, mostly including relationships between people in the school environment (Wang et al., 2016). Empirically, only the relationships between students (also summarised within the class as classroom climate) and between teachers and pupils are usually considered. However, teachers have been identified as particularly significant in the bullying process and as role models for students (Colpin et al., 2021). Because of this, it is assumed that relationships among teachers can also be significant risk factors for student bullying. In this study, we investigate communication climate among teachers as part of the school climate and its associations to student bullying. In addition, we follow Bronfenbrenner's idea of interactions among contextual levels by considering both school climate and classroom climate and investigating moderation effects. Data was collected from more than 550 teachers and 2,000 students in 114 classes at 24 schools in Germany. The analyses involved three-level hierarchical binary regression analyses and cross-level interaction models. Findings suggest that staff communication climate is not associated directly with students' experiences with bullying, but that the worse staff communication climate, the more students bully others in classrooms with high rates of rivalry (cross-level moderation). The associations will further be analysed under consideration of relevant control variables. Final results will be presented at the conference. The study broadens the contextual perspective on bullying by including more than one level at once and supports the importance of a whole-school perspective on bullying.

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