Bullying Victimization and Academic Achievement: Student (Dis)Engagement as a Mediator From a Multilevel Framework

• In Event: The Impact of Teacher-Student Relationships on Prosocial Behavior, Restorative Justice, and Bullying

Abstract

Drawing upon the idea of viewing school belonging as psychological and student absenteeism as behavioral (Finn, 1989), this study investigated whether bullying victimization was related to math achievement and whether such a relationship was mediated through student belonging and/or student absenteeism at both student and school levels. MLmed SPSS macro was used to partition the within-indirect effects from the between-indirect effects, thus helping obtain the indirect contextual effects. Results indicated that at the student level, those victimized had lower levels of school belonging and a higher likelihood of being absent from school, which were in turn associated with decreased math achievement. The school-level student belonging served as a mediator in the relationship, whereas the school-level student absenteeism did not.

Author

• Young S. Seo, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center