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Abstract

This study examined how student reports of bullying were related to different dimensions of school climate, at both the school and the student levels, using a contextual effects model in a two-level multilevel modeling framework. Participants included 48,874 secondary students (grades 8 to 12; 24,244 girls) from 76 schools in Western Canada. Results revealed significant associations for student perceptions of all school-climate dimensions at the student level and for a majority of the aggregated school-climate dimensions (except adult-related variables) at the school level in relation to bullying, when each school-climate dimension was included as the sole predictor in the contextual effects model. When examining the roles of all school-climate dimensions together, results showed that, at the school level, the effects of three school-climate variables – peer support, discipline/fairness/clarity of rules, and school safety – remained significant predictors of being bullied and bullying others, controlling for the effects of other school-climate dimensions at both the school and the student levels. The implications of these findings for building a safe and caring school environment are discussed.

Keywords

bullying Canada multilevel contextual effects model school climate social-emotional development

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