Understanding school incivility: Exploring its impact on students and practical interventions

Abstract

School incivility is defined as low-intensity deviant behaviors with ambiguous intent that violate the norms of mutual respect at school. We explored the impact of it and propose possible measures to mitigate its negative effects on students. Drawing upon the frustration-aggression theory, we developed a moderated mediation model to examine the influence of school incivility on student state self-esteem and cyberbullying. We tested this model using a sample of 3978 students (Mean age = 17.77 years old) in China. Regression analysis results revealed that state self-esteem mediated the relationship between school incivility and cyberbullying. Additionally, the Big Five personality traits of openness, extraversion, and agreeableness moderated the indirect effect of school incivility on cyberbullying through state self-esteem. Our study contributes to theoretical and practical understanding of school incivility by enriching related research, empirically verifying the frustration-aggression theory, and identifying a potential predictor of cyberbullying. We urge increased attention to school incivility and recommend practical interventions to prevent it in the school environment. These include implementing courses and campaigns related to school incivility, fostering a supportive school climate and enhancing monitoring and reporting mechanisms for school incivility.