Elsevier

Journal of School Psychology

Volume 67, April 2018, Pages 56-68
Journal of School Psychology

Associations between peer victimization, perceived teacher unfairness, and adolescents' adjustment and well-being

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Abstract

Negative relationships within the classroom, both with peers and teachers, can be very stressful for adolescents and are often found to be associated with a variety of negative outcomes. In this study, we investigated the concurrent role of peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness in explaining psychosocial problems in a sample of 1378 Italian students (353 middle school students, Mage = 12.61, SD = 0.69, and 1025 high school students, Mage = 14.92, SD = 0.81). Structural equation modeling showed that both peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness were positively associated with reports of more frequent psychological and somatic problems, and negatively related to satisfaction with friends and sense of safety. Only perceived teacher unfairness showed a significant association with satisfaction with school. Results of multi-group modeling demonstrated measurement invariance (total scalar invariance) across both gender and school-level groups. Some gender and school-level differences in the regression coefficients were found. In general, associations between the risk factors and adolescents' problems were stronger for girls and for higher school students. Findings confirmed that both peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness are significant risk factors within the classroom microsystems. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.

Introduction

The classroom environment is a social setting particularly suitable for the study of social and relational adjustment and well-being of adolescents, because students spend a substantial amount of time interacting with peers and teachers in this microsystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, Ladd, 2003). Both peers and teachers, moreover, can be influential agents in youth's development and can act as “social referents” for personal and social evaluations. That is, adolescents often use information from relationships with peers and teachers to appraise themselves, others, and the proximate social context (Chang, 2003, McAuliffe et al., 2009). While this setting offers many cognitive and relational opportunities to students, youth can also encounter significant risk factors that might negatively influence their personal, academic, and social adjustment. Positive and supportive relationships with classmates and teachers are resources that promote successful adaptation during adolescence (Compas, Hiden, & Gerhardt, 1995). Conversely, negative relationships within the classroom can be sometimes very stressful for adolescents and difficult to cope with (Swearer & Hymel, 2015).

Although there are various theoretical models that can be used to analyze the role of quality of interpersonal relationships within the classroom in individual adjustment (Gilman et al., 2009, Ladd, 2003, Sameroff, 1995), perhaps the most widely used and known in the field of school psychology is the social ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006). This approach acknowledges that youth's development, adjustment, and health risks are influenced by the contexts in which they live. In particular, an important microsystem is represented by the classroom where students closely interact with significant others, namely classmates and teachers (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This approach constitutes a comprehensive theoretical framework that has been particularly useful in recent conceptualizations of negative peer relationships, including bullying and peer victimization (Espelage, 2014, Swearer and Doll, 2001), and negative teacher-student relationships, including teacher unfairness (Lenzi et al., 2014). Moreover, research on the health correlates of both these negative experiences has used social-cognitive models of stress as frameworks, which conceptualize the role of environmental stressors, together with individual characteristics, in psychopathology (Cicchetti and Toth, 1998, Lazarus, 1993).

Of course, stressors in school life co-occur and it is important to test whether the relation between a single stressful experience (e.g., being victimized by peers) and an individual's well-being hold beyond the effects of other stressors. Based on the above-mentioned theoretical frameworks, in the current study we analyzed in a single model the concurrent role of two negative experiences that students can face in their everyday lives in the classroom, namely peer victimization and unfair treatment by teachers. Both these negative relationships can communicate to adolescents' negative images about themselves, their relationships with others, and their school experience. Specifically, we tested a model in which both relational stressors independently contribute to explain a variety of problems in different domains of adolescents' lives, including personal well-being, satisfaction with friendship relationships and with school, and sense of safety at school.

Peer victimization is one of the most common problems that students experience during their school careers, especially in the middle and high school years. It is estimated that about one-third of youth are involved in some forms of victimization by peers (Juvonen et al., 2000, Nansel et al., 2001, Storch and Ledley, 2005). Among middle and high school students, Hoover, Oliver, and Hazler (1992) found that 14% of their sample believed that being harassed by peers negatively affected one or more aspects of their adjustment. Consistent with stress-health models (Bonanno and Hymel, 2010, Flack et al., 2011, McEwen, 1998, Swearer and Hymel, 2015), research has indeed confirmed that peer victimization in schools is a stressful life experience that can have negative outcomes in several domains of students' adjustment and well-being. For instance, victimization by peers is often reported to be associated with more frequent health symptoms, such as headaches, stomachaches, muscle pains, and sleeping problems (Gini and Pozzoli, 2013, Gini et al., 2014), and with psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem (Casper and Card, 2016, Gini et al., 2017, Reijntjes et al., 2010, Ttofi et al., 2011).

Based on a definition of mental health as more than the absence of psychopathological symptoms (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), adjustment and well-being should also be studied with respect to the presence of positive outcomes, rather than only focusing on health complaints and psychological problems. From the perspective of positive psychology, it is particularly important to consider life satisfaction (that is, perceived quality of life), a construct closely associated with happiness and with positive personal and social outcomes (Huebner et al., 1999, Lewinsohn et al., 1991). Poor life satisfaction is distinguishable from low self-esteem or depression (Huebner et al., 1999); an adolescent can be satisfied with her or his life, but concurrently experience symptomatology (Suldo & Shaffer, 2008). Key domains of life satisfaction for adolescents in particular include satisfaction with friends and school life (Gilman, Huebner, & Laughlin, 2000).

Only a few studies have analyzed the relation between peer victimization and life satisfaction in adolescents (Valois et al., 2012, Wilkins-Shurmer et al., 2003). Given that life satisfaction is a multidimensional construct that includes different areas (Huebner et al., 1999), victimization by peers at school could be negatively associated with specific domains of life satisfaction. A study with Italian adolescents (Gini, 2008a) indeed found a negative association between peer victimization and satisfaction with friends, one of the major components of life satisfaction for adolescents (Gilman et al., 2000). However, to date no study has analyzed this association within a more articulated model where different outcomes of peer victimization are considered together.

Similarly, peer victimization could be negatively related to satisfaction with school life (e.g., liking to go to school and believing that school life is stimulating and gratifying), another domain central to adolescents' life satisfaction (Gilman et al., 2000). School plays a crucial role in addressing the basic need to experience relatedness and belonging (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) and students who are accepted by their peers at school, for example, are more likely to enjoy school and their classes (Osterman, 2000). Conversely, being victimized by peers is associated with poor academic achievement, low sense of belonging to school, and school avoidance (Buhs, 2005, Juvonen et al., 2000, Nakamoto and Schwartz, 2010). However, despite the fact that school satisfaction is a relevant aspect of adolescents' quality of life, it is a rather neglected topic in peer victimization research. Nonetheless, a few studies suggest that acceptance by peers and lack of victimization are positively associated to school satisfaction (Samdal, Nutbeam, Wold, & Kannas, 1998). Conversely, middle school students who have experienced peer victimization report being less satisfied with their school lives (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002).

Finally, peer victimization may be associated with decreased feelings of safety in the school context. Even though relatively little is known about the impact of social-contextual factors on students' feelings of safety at school (Fisher, Nation, Nixon, & McIlroy, 2016), among the most likely risk factors for sense of unsafety is peer victimization, both suffered and witnessed (Boxer et al., 2003, Goldweber et al., 2013, Ormerod et al., 2008). For example, Boxer et al. (2003) found that students who witnessed peer aggression at school reported lower perceptions of safety. Similarly, Gini, Pozzoli, Borghi, and Franzoni (2008) found that students reported lower levels of sense of safety when presented with hypothetical scenarios of peer victimization. Reasonably, personal experiences of peer victimization further diminishes students' sense of safety at school (Bachman et al., 2011, Sacco and Nakhaie, 2007).

Consistent with the social ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and social-cognitive models of stress applied to the school context (Swearer & Hymel, 2015), many aspects of the classroom environment might influence students' well-being and academic and social adjustment (Murray et al., 2008, Roorda et al., 2011); among these, a critical, but understudied characteristic is the perception of being treated in a fair (or unfair) manner by teachers. In particular, “relational unfairness” concerns the perceived quality of interpersonal treatment, that is, whether or not students perceive to be treated with fairness, honesty, and respect by teachers (Lenzi et al., 2013). Perceived unfair treatment by teachers has sometimes been included in the broader construct of school climate, with the potential of confounding or losing its specific role, whereas it has not been adequately studied as a potential risk factor on its own for adolescent adjustment (Gottfredson, Gottfredson, Payne, & Gottfredson, 2005). Further, research suggests that there are differences by age in perceived school stressors, including teacher unfairness. For example, a study on a large sample of Swedish students that analyzed several school stressors found that being treated unfairly by teachers was more often reported by 13–18 year old students compared to younger students (Hjern, Alfven, & Östberg, 2008).

Similar to peer victimization, perceiving teacher unfairness can be a stressful experience within the classroom microsystem. Students are particularly sensitive to the perceived fairness of their instructors (Shapiro, 1990) and unfair treatment is especially destructive during adolescence because adolescents' self-esteem appraisals are sensitive to social comparisons (Osterman, 2000). Fair relationships serve psychological needs, including belonging and self-esteem (Cropanzano, Byrne, Bobocel, & Rupp, 2001). As a consequence, if people feel they are treated fairly, they evaluate the authority as more trustworthy and will experience a stronger sense of identity and self-worth (Tyler & Smith, 1999). Conversely, the condition of unfair treatment reflects an emotional state in which the individuals experience a sense of anger, frustration, or anxiety. Based on equity and social exchange theories (Adams, 1965), and the well-established cognitive appraisal model of stress and coping developed by Lazarus (1993), the organizational justice literature has acknowledged that acts of unfairness can produce negative stress-related reactions that predict dissatisfaction and other health-related outcomes (De Vogli et al., 2007, Ford, 2014, Janssen, 2004, Kouvonen et al., 2008).

However, although several studies have examined the health impact of acts of unfairness in the adult population, mainly in organizational contexts (De Vogli et al., 2007, Kivimäki et al., 2005), only a few of them have analyzed this relation among adolescents in the school context (Santinello, Vieno, & De Vogli, 2009). For example, a recent cross-national study conducted on a large sample of adolescents from 21 European and North-American countries showed that teacher unfairness was significantly associated with headaches, the most frequent health complaint during adolescence (Lenzi et al., 2013). Moreover, perceived unfair treatment by teachers has been found to intensify emotional distress (e.g., anger and sadness) (Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff, 1998). Compared to peer victimization, the physical/mental health correlates of perceived teacher unfairness have been much less analyzed.

Besides students' personal well-being, teacher fair treatment can influence adolescents' motivation, satisfaction with, and adjustment at school (Ripski and Gregory, 2009, Stipek et al., 1998). Roeser et al. (1998) noted that perceived negative differential treatment by teachers (e.g., unfairness and disrespect) might diminish adolescents' academic motivation (e.g., perceived academic value). Recent research has also found that teachers' fairness is significantly associated with students' academic engagement (Danielsen, Wiium, Wilhelmsen, & Wold, 2010) and less distress at school (Correia & Dalbert, 2007). Similarly, perceived teacher differential treatment has been found to be significantly related to students' self-expectations and to their academic success (Weinstein & McKown, 1998), and when accompanied by lack of teacher respect, valuing, and concern for students, it contributes to students' decisions to drop out of school (Lee & Breen, 2007). Researchers have also found that students are most satisfied in classrooms where students are treated fairly (Samdal et al., 1998). Finally, teacher characteristics like teacher fairness, respect, and concern for students may improve the relational climate of the classroom, diminish conflicts and negative behaviors, and increase the feeling of safety (Murdock, 1999).

In sum, consistent with the broad social ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and both classic and recent models of stress and health (Lazarus, 1993, Swearer and Hymel, 2015) applied to the classroom context, peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness are two stressful school experiences likely to be associated with a number of problems in different domains of adolescents' lives. In the current study we tested a model in which both risk factors within the classroom microsystem were expected to be concurrently related to higher psychological and somatic problems, lower satisfaction with friendship relationships and with school, and lower sense of safety at school, even when the effect of the other risk factor was accounted for. We chose to analyze two life stressors within the microsystem because this is the most salient system for individual well-being (Bronfenbrenner, 1979); moreover, the class was considered as relevant social context instead of the whole school based on the specific characteristics of the Italian school system. In Italy, students stay with the same class peer group in the same class during the entire school day in the middle school years and at least the first two years of high school. As such, students' relationships within a single classroom are usually more frequent and significant than those with schoolmates from other classes. Similarly, students within a classroom share the same group of teachers for at least one (but often more than one) school-year. Thus, the teacher/student interactions that influence the organizational context of the class are likely to be more important and influential than in other countries where classes are reconstituted with different teachers and students each year.

In this study, we also considered the role of gender, given that previous studies have shown that gender may affect some of the variables considered in our study, such as frequency of peer victimization (more often higher in boys; Nansel et al., 2001, Vieno et al., 2015), levels of reported psychological and somatic problems (usually higher in girls; Lenzi et al., 2013, Vieno et al., 2015), and levels of life satisfaction (usually higher in boys; Moksnes and Espnes, 2013, Moksnes et al., 2013). More importantly, research has indicated that adolescent girls tend to be more sensitive than boys to the adverse effects of stressful experiences, particularly stressors involving the disruption of interpersonal relationships (Rose and Rudolph, 2006, Rudolph, 2002). For example, some studies showed stronger effects of peer victimization for girls, such as more withdrawal or social anxiety (Rusby et al., 2005, Siegel et al., 2009). Similarly, the negative associations between peer victimization and adolescents' perceptions of (general) life satisfaction have been found to be stronger for girls (Valois et al., 2012). Regarding teacher unfairness, to our knowledge no study has directly tested gender differences in the relations between perceiving to be treated unfairly by teachers and any personal outcome. Therefore, we tested whether links between the constructs of this study were different for boys and girls. Consistent with previous findings, we anticipated that, due to higher sensitization to interpersonal stress (Llewellyn & Rudolph, 2014), exposure to relational adversities such as peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness would be more strongly associated with higher levels of problems and lower levels of satisfaction among adolescent girls than among boys.

Finally, we focused on adolescence as crucial life period for the appearance of adjustment problems related to the two considered risk factors (Compas et al., 1995) and, therefore, we included only adolescents into our sample. The main reasons why these school stressors were studied in adolescence include the fact that most of the existing literature on the link between them and students' well-being is based on middle and high school students, and that they have been reported to be more frequent or more salient in the adolescent years (Hjern et al., 2008). We had no particular theoretical reason to expect significant age-related differences in the strength of model paths within this age group. Nonetheless, we also explored whether any difference existed between middle school students and high school students, given that school transition might change how students appraise stressful experiences and their relations with individual adjustment and well-being. In this latter case, however, we did not have any specific a-priori hypothesis about possible differences and the analysis was deemed exploratory.

Section snippets

Participants

The total sample included 1,378 adolescents from 3 middle schools and 8 high schools randomly sampled from a northeastern region of Italy; 353 students (198 boys and 155 girls; Mage = 12.61, SD = 0.69) attended grades 6 to 8 (that is, middle school in the Italian school system;) and 1025 students (374 boys and 651 girls, Mage = 14.92, SD = 0.81) attended grades 9 and 10 (that is, compulsory high school). A small convenience subsample (N = 112), selected based on schools' willingness to participate,

Results

Zero-order correlations between the study variables are reported in Table 1, Table 2 for gender groups and school levels, respectively.

Average results across 10 imputed datasets for the SEM model run on the entire sample were as follows: χ2(540) = 1624.77, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.932, RMSEA = 0.038. Standardized coefficients are reported in Fig. 1. Both peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness were positively associated with higher psychological and somatic problems, and negatively

Discussion

Consistent with the social ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and both classic (Lazarus, 1993) and recent models of stress and health (Swearer & Hymel, 2015), this study provides the first systematic examination of the concurrent influence of peer victimization and teacher unfairness on adolescents' well-being. Specifically, to extend past research we used structural equation modeling to determine whether experiencing higher levels of peer victimization and perceived teacher unfairness

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Anna Brentegani, Roberta Brojanigo, Silvia Di Stefano, Adriana Mirzac, and Giulia Mondolo for their help with data collection.

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