Abstract
This study examined the relations among future orientation, school bonding, and school bullying perpetration behaviors. Data were collected from 677 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents in an area in Southwest China. Specifically, students completed the Future-Orientation Questionnaire, the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, and the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire to assess their future orientation, school bonding, and bullying behaviors, respectively. Results indicated that students’ future orientation (toward education or occupation) was negatively associated with school bullying perpetration. Future orientation was also significantly associated with their feeling of school bonding. School bonding had a significant indirect effect ( b = .37) on the relation between future orientation in the educational domain and school bullying behavior, and also played a significant mediating role in the relation between future orientation in the occupational domain and school bullying perpetration ( b = .30). This research suggests that school bonding may be one mechanism by which children’s orientation toward future education or future occupation may have an effect on their bullying perpetration behaviors.
Highlights
Bullying in schools has been identified as a serious problem plaguing school students worldwide (Jimerson, Swearer, & Espelage, 2010)
Given that protective and promotive factors play an important role in the etiology and the developmental course of adolescent problem behavior, scientific attention should be broadened beyond its traditional preoccupation with risk factors to encompass protective and promotive factors as well (Jessor, Van Den Bos, Vanderryn, Costa, & Turbin, 1995), so as to inform school bullying prevention strategies for adolescents to aim to reduce the risks and strengthen the protective factors (Ttofi & Farrington, 2012)
Model fit was evaluated based on the chi-square test statistic, the comparative fit index (CFI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR)
Summary
Bullying in schools has been identified as a serious problem plaguing school students worldwide (Jimerson, Swearer, & Espelage, 2010). Research has provided evidence of the association between future orientation and a wide range of problem behaviors (Bolland, 2003; Oyserman & Saltz, 1993; Robbins & Bryan, 2004; Stoddard, Zimmerman, & Bauermeister, 2011). No research has tested the mediating effect of school bonding on the relation between future orientation and school bullying behavior. In the present study, we aim to examine the relationship between future orientation and school bullying, and to examine the mediating effect of school bonding on the future orientation— school bullying behavior link. Seven items were presented asking about specific forms of behaviors associated with bullying others. These seven questions referred to the four forms of bullying perpetration: verbal, physical, social, and other forms of bullying others. X. Zhang et al, 1999) and .71 in the present study
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