A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study of School Factors As Mediators from Depression and Parental Monitoring to Peer Victimization in Mainland Chinese Middle Schools

Background/Purpose: Peer victimization in school has been recognized as a worldwide social problem affecting adolescent well-being. Concerns about the negative consequences associated with peer victimization have led academics from various disciplines to examine antecedents of peer victimization. However, these studies have primarily investigated personal and family antecedents while only a few empirical studies have examined the impacts of school factors on peer victimization. Most studies utilized a cross-sectional research design. In addition, inquiries have not carefully investigated these variables affect victimization in Asian societies, especially mainland China. The current study addresses these research gaps by using a large-scale 3-year longitudinal national sample from China. Specifically, we examined how personal (depression) and family (parental monitoring) factors directly affect middle school peer victimization. We also explored the impact of school variables (academic performance, risky peer influence, and school belongingness) as mediators of personal and family factors on peer victimization in mainland Chinese middle schools.

Methods: This study utilized the data from 2014 to 2016 of the China Education Panel Study, which is a nationally representative longitudinal panel survey of Chinese middle school students. The sample consists of 28 county-level units, 112 schools, and 438 classes which are randomly selected for investigation. A total of 8357 students were included in this study.

Results: The structural equation modeling results indicate that the proposed model fits the data well (CFI = .984, RMSEA = .029, SRMR = .020). Parental monitoring in Wave 1 did not predict peer victimization in Wave 3 directly (β = .01), but it showed a significant indirect impact on peer victimization in Wave 3 through academic performance (β = .11), risky peer influence (β = -.13), and school belongingness (β = .14) in Wave 2. Depression in Wave 1 was directly associated with peer victimization in Wave 3 (β = .14) and indirectly affected peer victimization in Wave 3 through academic performance (β = -.11), risky peer influence (β = .08), and school belongingness (β = -.29) in Wave 2. School belongingness emerged as the most influential mediator among the three school variables.

Conclusions and Implications: The overall findings in this study show similar patterns to the findings in Western research. However, the relationships between all the variables are weaker compared to tests in Western studies. It might be due to the contextual differences between Chinese culture and Western culture. Future studies should capture more contextual aspects of the Chinese mainland context by conducting mixed methods research and involving culturally sensitive items in the measurements. From the practical view, this study suggests a whole-school approach to improve the school climate could work in China, with adaptations. School professionals, such as social workers, counselors, and psychologists, in China who want to enhance the school environment and eliminate peer victimization should adapt and enhance climate-building programs that include components that directly address school belongingness from an Asian cultural perspective.